The competitive Common Admission Test is all set for export out of India. It has been reported that the Indian Institutes of Management have been approached by business schools in Sri Lanka to carry out CAT for their candidates as well. The plan is expected to take off next year. , a plan that will take off next year. Himanshu Rai, Convener, CAT-2010 also mentioned that apart from Lanka B Schools, the business schools from several other countries like South-East Asia have shown interest in use of the given examination system.
In 2009, after 33 years of a paper-pencil format, the test graduated to a computer-based one. The CAT in foreign lands, too, will follow the existing Indian model. Agencies would be hired by the IIMs to conduct the exam; paper and the questions, however, will be formulated by them. Currently, the IIMs have signed a five-year-long contract with an American-based testing firm, Prometric, to conduct the computer-based test. While the US company is paid a fixed fee, the IIMs make their bucks through the money that flows in from applicants' registrations and from the fees they charge other B-schools for using the CAT scores to admit their candidates.
