1. CAT - The Written Test / Entrance Exam
All B-Schools in India have a written aptitude test as the first stage of screening applicants. The six IIMs conduct a Common Admission Test (CAT), usually on the third Sunday of every November. S.P. Jain Mumbai, Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon, NITIE Bombay and many other business schools and MBA colleges base their selection on CAT scores as well as few on XAT Scores. Other popular written tests in India include the XAT (Xavier Admission Test) conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur conducts and this score is a criterion for admission to S.P. Jain Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur ,XIM Bhubaneswar, BIM Trichy, LIBA Chennai, XIME Bangalore, Goa Institute of Management and score of other business schools. FMS Delhi, IIFT Delhi and the Schools of Management, IIT (Joint Management Entrance Test or JMET) have their own respective tests.
The written test, the first stage of elimination, tests a student's ability to perform under pressure. The areas of testing include basic mathematics taught till Class X, English taught during the first year of graduation and analytical & logical reasoning. The written test is the most difficult step in getting into a top B-School in India. Most of the elimination takes place at this stage.
2. B School Application Essays and Reference Letters
Application Essays are an integral part of most top B Schools selection process. While only those shortlisted based on their written scores in CAT are expected to write these essays in the case of the IIMs, some other top management institutes in India such as the SP Jain ask you to write many essays at the first stage itself. In the case of SP Jain, your application essays play a crucial role in getting shortlisted for the next round - viz., group interviews. However, in the case of the IIMs, they could form the basis for the interview process. IIM Bangalore, in the recent past, requires those aspirants who have cleared CAT and been shortlisted for the GD-PI to produce three letters of reference.
3. Group Discussions / Personal Interviews - GD / PI
Based on the performance in the written test, students are short listed for a Group Discussion and Personal Interview. At the IIMs, anyone who is shortlisted for the GD PI process attends both the group discussion and the personal interview. GD is not an elimination stage at the IIMs. However, other b schools could have the GD as an elimination process. In SPJain the next level of elimination happens after a profile based elimination process. After profile based selection, the students are shortlisted for group interviews, where both GD topics and interviews happen in a group of 8-10 students.
4. Admission
Admission is usually offered based on the cumulative scores of written test, GD / PIs, and work experience (in some cases). Admission notification from top B Schools start from the second week of March and continue till the end of April. Many of the management institutes also have a waitlist of candidates which gets updated based on the number of students in the first list who accept offers made to them.
