Many MBA aspirants fare poorly in CMAT

Updated on: Friday, March 15, 2013

How bad can graduates be in problem solving, data interpretation, logical reasoning, language comprehension and general awareness - real life skills required in today's corporate world? Poor enough to secure -40 marks out of a maximum score of 400.

As many as 311 students scored zilch in the national-level Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), scores of which are used to determine admission to postgraduate courses in management schools across the country. A good 1,138 secured even lower, with two candidates securing -40 marks. The scores were calculated by assigning four marks for a correct answer, -1 mark for an incorrect answer and zero mark for no answer. The minimum score fell to -40 from -36 in the last CMAT. Around 1.18 lakh candidates took the test in February.

P Moorthy Selvakumaran, educational consultant, said, "If this is the state of our graduates who want to become managers, it's hard to imagine the quality of future postgraduate students."

Dean and deputy director of Loyola Institute of Business Administration Dr Emmanuel Arockiam said this is proof that the candidates are ticking the choices in random. "Scores in aptitude tests is an indicator of whether the students will be able to complete the programme. All the skills required to crack such tests are necessary to see the candidate through the course and during placements as well."

Mayur Shah from Ahmedabad bagged the pole position in the test with an enviable 376 out of 400. Sagar Shrinivas from Mumbai scored 360 and stood second, while Preeti Chakravarthy came third with 354. A sprinkling of 10 girls figured in the top 200. In the state-wise performance, Karnataka and Gujarat students performed the best; their state score average tied at 160. Maharashtra came second with 155 and Andhra Pradesh was third with 153.

Boys performed better than their female counterparts in the test. Data from the AICTE shows the average score of girls was 89.7 and that of boys 97.5. While the maximum overall score (376) was up from the last exam (330), the average score was down from 113.2 to 94.19.

Academics said that this is also an indication that coaching institutes have still not managed to crack the test and help students eliminate wrong answers.

Many MBA aspirants fare poorly in CMAT

More Education news