There has been a decline in the number of candidates scoring an overall 100 percentile in the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year. According to the CAT 2018 results, declared on January 5, only 11 candidates scored an overall 100 percentile, compared to 20 the previous year. All the 11 candidates are male and from an engineering or technology background, while there were two female candidates and three non-engineers among the top 20 in the past year.
Around 21 candidates scored an overall 99.99 per cent this year, a majority (19) of who are from engineering and technology backgrounds.
“From the graduation records, seven candidates are from different IITs, followed by two candidates from Jadavpur University. From the permanent address provided during application, seven candidates are from Maharashtra, two from West Bengal, and one each from Karnataka and Bihar,” says Sumanta Basu, CAT Convener - 2018.
Interestingly, there was an 8 per cent rise in the number of enrollments by female candidates this year, which led to 84,350 candidates enrolling for the exam. However, only 73,326 took the exam, which is down nearly 6 per cent as compared to the 78,000 candidates who appeared for the exam in 2017.
The exam, conducted on November 25, recorded a total of 2,09,405 candidates giving the test across 147 cities. It is to be noted that IIM Calcutta was the organising institute for CAT 2018. The number of test-takers this year has been the largest till date. Moreover, four transgender candidates also took the exam.
Various IIMs will release their shortlist for the subsequent process of considering CAT scores and other criteria. More than 100 other non-IIM institutions also use the CAT score for admissions to their management programmes.