In a first, the registrations for the Common Admission Test (CAT) have crossed three lakhs. As per IIM Lucknow, there is an increase in registration to 30 per cent from last year. Last year, there was an increase of 11 per cent in registrations. "A record 3.3 lakh applicants have registered for CAT 2023, which is the highest in the history of CAT that started in 1977," said exam convener Prof Sanjeet Singh. The exam is scheduled to be held on November 26. Last year, 2.55 lakh candidates registered for the exam while 2.31 lakh applied in 2021. During the pandemic, there was a minor dip in the applications (about 2.77 in 2020 and 2.29 in 2021), however, it has steadily increased since last year. Singh believes that the increase in the number of exam centres, IITs and other reputed institutes considering CAT scores for admission, and more exam centres in small cities are some of the reasons why the registration has increased. There is also an uptick in the registration of women candidates. Out of the total registered candidates, 1.17 lakh are women. "IIMs are encouraging women candidates and therefore the gender diversity in some IIMs has improved significantly. This could be the reason why more women applicants are applying," said Singh. Moreover, 35 per cent of the registered candidates are engineers, as per IIM Lucknow. In 2022, 11 candidates secured a 100 percentile, out of which 10 were engineers.
