Which MBA exams you must take to approach top B-schools?

With most of the B-schools announcing their admission for 2014-16 in the month of August–September, you must carefully choose the MBA exams which will lead you to your dream B-school.

A valid score of written MBA exams like CAT, XAT is one of the main eligibility criteria to get into GD-PI shortlist of most of the top management institutes. Some of the top management institutes like IIFT conduct a separate written test.

While Common Admission Test (CAT) is conducted by the group of Indian Institute of Management for admission to all the 13 IIMs, many other top B-schools also accept CAT score as eligibility criteria for their GD-PI short-listing for full-time MBA programmes. Similarly, XLRI Jamshedpur conducts XAT for admission to its management programmes, the XAT scores are also accepted by top B-schools like SPJIMR, IMT Ghaziabad, BIMTECH, TAPMI, LIBA and many others. 

So, which MBA exams you must take to get an admission opportunity at top B-schools? The table below lists the high ranked B-schools along with their MBA exams. 

B-schools	CAT	XAT	Others MBA Exams
Indian Institute of Management (all 13 IIM)	Yes	No	No
XLRI, Jamshedpur	No	Yes	No
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai	No	No	NMAT
Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi	Yes	No	No
Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon	Yes	No	No
S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai	Yes	Yes	GMAT
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), University of Mumbai	Yes	No	CMAT
Department of Management Studies (IIT Delhi)	Yes	No	No
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi & Kolkata	No	No	IIFT Entrance
National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai	Yes	No	No
Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA)	Yes	No	No
Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad	Yes	Yes	GMAT
International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi	Yes	No	GMAT
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB)	Yes	Yes	No
BIMTECH, Greater Noida	Yes	Yes	No
T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal	Yes	Yes	GMAT
Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai	Yes	Yes	No
IFIM Business School, Bangalore	Yes	Yes	GMAT
Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME),Bangalore	Yes	Yes	CMAT, MAT, ATMA
Goa Institute of Management, Goa	Yes	Yes	CMAT

Except NMIMS & IIFT, which conduct their separate written test, most of the other top B-schools either accept CAT scores or XAT scores.  The registration process for entrance exams like CAT, XAT, NMAT and IIFT are open. Key dates below:

MBA Exam	Test Date	Last Date	Fee	Eligibility for General Category	Exam Pattern
CAT 2013	16 Oct -11 Nov, 2013	26 Sept, 2013	Rs 1600	Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA	Section I: Quant+DI, Total questions- 30, Total marks-90, Time-70 min Section II: Verbal +Logical Reasoning Total questions- 30, Total marks-90, Time-70 min
XAT 2014	5 Jan, 2014	22 Nov, 2013	Rs 950	Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline	Part I: Multiple-choice questions for three sections – Verbal Ability, Decision Making & Quantitative Aptitude. Time allotted: 2:20 hrs Part II: Essay writing and General Awareness. Time Allotted: 40 min
NMAT 2014	5 Oct- 18 Dec, 2013	24 Sept, 2013	MBA or PGDM: Rs 2000 --------- MBA and PGDM: Rs 2400	Bachelor's Degree (10+2+3/4) in any discipline with minimum 50% marks	Language Skills: Qs-32 Quantitative Skills: Qs-48 Logical Reasoning: Qs-40
IIFT 2014	24th Nov, 2013	3 Sept, 2013	Rs 1200	Bachelor’s degree of minimum 3 years duration in any discipline	Quantitative Ability, Reading Comprehension, English Usage, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, General Awareness

  

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