Single Entrance Test for all Management Studies

All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) is planning to hold a single entrance exam for all management studies. Current entrance exams like the Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude Test (MAT) and other entrance exams, conducted by various state governments, may soon be history.

At present, there are 3,800 AICTE-approved management institutes that have almost 4 lakh students. Every year, around 60-70 institutes get added to the list.Almost 1.8 lakh candidates took CAT in 2010 while more than 2 lakh candidates registered for it. On the other hand, 2.5 lakh students wrote MAT in 2010. Experts say there was an anomaly in the proposal as earlier the AICTE norm was that admissions could be through one of the five all-India entrance testes' CAT, JMET, MAT (conducted by All India Management Association), ATMA and XAT (conducted by XLRI). All institutions admitting students on an all-India basis then had to opt for one of these all-India entrance tests.

MAST from AIMA: The way to go for the Management Students and Organizations

INTRODUCTION

Founded in the year 1957, All India Management Association (AIMA) is an apex body of management with over 30,000 individual members, 3000 institutional members and 60 Local Management Association across India and overseas.  AIMA undertakes a host of management related activities and initiatives such as Distance Management Education, Management Development Programmes, Special Conferences, Research & Publications, Testing Services and Competitions.

Management Aptitude and Skills Test - MAST is the latest offering from AIMA for the benefit of both recruiters and fresh management pass outs alike.

 ADVANTAGE STUDENTS The two thousand plus B-Schools in India are churning out more than 3 Lakhs students every year. All B Schools do not necessarily have the bandwidth and access to attract pan India recruiters to screen their students. Placement is a challenge for many B-Schools today and finding the right fit for students has become a daunting task. Through this test, management students will understand their requisite managerial skill set and use the score as a proof point of their skills.

ADVANTAGE RECRUITERS Leading organisations end up spending a lot of time and incur huge costs visiting B-School campuses to hire fresh talent. MAST is developed to assist this recruitment process and make it smooth and efficient as the organizations get ready access to the database and a standard measure to shortlist the candidates whom they would like to meet for the interviews.

MAST FORMAT

Its an Computer based, objective type test for  2 hours 30 minutes duration

Test is divided in three main sections
1. Psychometric Test
2. General Ability Test
3. Domain Knowledge Test

1. Psychometric Test : Personality traits commonly held in high demand by recruiters stated below will be tested
• Leadership
• Decision Making Ability
• Team Work
• Adaptability
• Stress Management
• Initiator
• Ethical Values
• Negotiation skills
• Stability

2. General Ability Test will assess logical reasoning or thinking performance and will evaluate the following

• Numerical Ability
• Managerial Ability
• Reasoning
• English Language

3. Domain Knowledge Test will include multiple choice questions as well as case study based multiple choice questions in the following areas:
• Finance
• HR
• Information Technology (IT)
• International Business
• Marketing
• Operations
SCHEDULE FOR THE TEST

Will be held twice a year. For 2011, the first  test is on 20th Jan 2011 onwards. For more details, kindly visit

http://202.138.125.132/aima/Home/Schedule.aspx