8 engineers hit the perfect score in CAT

Of the top eight,three are from Maharashtra — two from Mumbai and one from Pune — and one each from Delhi,Chennai,Kolkata,Bangalore and Indore.

As has been the trend with CAT for a while now,all eight top scorers are men and come from an engineering background,it is learnt. This does not come as a surprise considering the fact that 88 per cent of the total candidates who took CAT 2010 were from engineering background.

The IIMs,incidentally,have been mulling ways to widen and diversify the candidate profile in order to draw more women and non-engineering candidates to the B-schools.

The next big thing on the successful candidates’ minds will be the interviews,and the IIMs,it is learnt,have decided to make things easier for them this time. It is learnt that the new IIMs — in Ranchi,Rohtak,Raipur and Trichy — are working towards holding a joint system for group discussions and interviews of candidates. The rest of the IIMs are also likely to schedule their interviews in a single city around the same dates to make things easier for the candidates.

The Human Resource Development Ministry had asked all the IIMs to admit students on the basis of an integrated interview process as recommended by the Bhargava Committee. The Ministry had also written to them in July last year,asking them to conduct an integrated interview for admissions like in IITs. While the IIMs rejected the idea of an integrated interview,a middle ground has been arrived at and IIMs have agreed to a single city interview format in which all IIMs will hold interviews one after the other in the same city.