Certainly, it appears to be a pleasant news for CAT aspirants as one of the top notch management school IIM Ahmedabad is now deciding on increasing seat intake for PGP 2017-19 batch. IIM Ahmedabad has sent a proposal to MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development), which has confirmed the receipt of such proposal. The approval of MHRD can prove to be a great deal for CAT aspirants as more candidates will get an opportunity to grab seats for acquiring admissions in management courses.

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Recently, IIM Ahmedabad has modified PGP, PGP-FABM AND FABM courses and the total intake of these courses were 440. Also, to increase the participation of foreign candidates, IIM Ahmedabad added supernumerary seats for the academic session 2015-16. One of the professors was quoted saying that “Our objective is to get quality foreign students to bring in diversity and also to position the institute as a global learning destination for management students."  Foreign students are generally offered admission through GMAT scores. The scores of domestic candidates of GMAT will also be considered for admission to PGPX course. CAT score will be taken in consideration for admission in all other MBA/PGDM courses.

READ MORE ABOUT CHANGE IN IIM AHMEDABAD SELECTION CRITERIA

CAT exam is not only considered for getting admissions in IIM Ahmedabad, but CAT score is also considered for shortlisting candidates for other 20 IIMs. CAT which is also called Common Admission Test is a doorway to various management courses in IIMs. It is the computer based exam in India for MBA admissions in 19 IIMs and over 150 B-schools. CAT exam is organized by 19 IIMs on a rotational basis. For this year, IIM Bangalore is organizing the exam.

READ MORE ABOUT CAT EXAM: EXPECT MORE WEIGHTAGE TO VERBAL ABILITY & READING COMPREHENSION

IIM Ahmedabad is one of the top management school in India and its Post Graduate Programme (PGP) is its flagship programme. To acquire admission in PGP batch at IIMA, tough selection criteria is followed. Apart from considering CAT score, the shortlisting process includes various considerations like:

1. Candidates from different categories- General, NC-OBC, SC, ST, DA categories are separately shortlisted.
2. Further, filtration is done from above five categories, IIMA identifies top 50 candidates or 1% of total applicants who apply to IIMA through CAT.
3. 80 percentile is the minimum CAT score considered as a qualification parameter to shortlist the candidates for acquiring admission in IIMA.
4. There are other relevant shortlisting criteria for PGP 2017 admission. Some of them are excellent academic record, work experience, gender and academic diversity.

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It is important to keep the track of relevant dates in order to remember the timeline beginning from registration process to the CAT exam date. You can refer to the following table and in order to get a proper idea of important dates.

Candidates who are keenly looking for CAT Eligibility Criteria can have a look at the following, as below is the basic eligibility criteria which is needed for continuing CAT application process.

1. Graduation degree is a must, with 50% marks or equivalent CGPA. 5% relaxation is given to SC/ST and PWD category i.e. they are eligible if they score 45% marks in their graduation marks.
2. Students appearing in the final year of graduation or equivalent examination are also eligible to apply for CAT 2016.

Also, the students who are awaiting their results for graduation may also apply.

READ MORE ABOUT CAT : Eligibility criteria of CAT and IIM A contradicts

By following the below stated steps, an aspirant can get himself/herself registered for CAT:

1. Eligible candidates can register for CAT 2016 by visiting the official website.
2. You will find the link of 'CAT Exam Registration Process', click on that link.
3. Candidate is required to fill the mandatory details.
4. Pay the required application/registration fee.
5. 'Submit' the application and download the same for your reference and future use.
6. The candidate has to select any four exam cities in accordance to their preference.

READ MORE ABOUT CAT MCQ-QUESTIONS

It is of no use to get yourself registered for CAT, when the required documents are not complete, because ultimately your application will get rejected. So, the candidate need to cross-check the following list of documents:

1. Scanned colored photograph (35 mm x 45 mm) in .jpg or .jpeg format.
2. Scanned image of candidate's signature (80 mm x 35 mm) in .jpg or .jpeg format.
3. CAT candidate needs to download following certificates from the official website and after filling it, get it signed by appropriate authorities. Self-attest them and submit them as a scanned PDF document.

READ MORE ABOUT APPLICATION REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

Date for downloading CAT Admit card is October 8^th 2016. For a candidate, admit card carries a relevance in a sense that it is a document which is compulsory for appearing in CAT examination. The admit card for CAT will be released online on the official website and will be available for download from October 18, 2016 to December 4^th 2016.

READ MORE ABOUT DOCUMENTS REQUIRED WITH CAT ADMIT CARD