Difference between CAT,MAT and XAT

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If you want to become a management graduate and make a mark in the management of business here or abroad, there are many Management Education both State-run and private, which can provide you the requisite degree. For getting admission into these management institutes, you have to appear for entrance tests. These include CAT (for IIMs), MAT (AIMA), XAT (XLRI), FMS, JMET(IITs&IISc), OPENMAT(IGNOU) and a large number of others. Of these, we are going to talk about two major admission tests CAT (COMMON ADMISSION TEST)and MAT(MANAGEMENT APTITUDE TEST), which can open the floodgates of opportunities in this field. But there is a qualitative difference.

In the CAT, time management plays a crucial role for if you are able to crack 80-90 percent of the questions of a section, it would be considered a very good attempt. At the same time, there is virtually no pressure of time while cracking the MAT.

There is no General Knowledge test in CAT. But in the MAT, such a test exist under the section" Indian and Global environment". For this may need to do some extra bit of preparation.

GD end Interview: The CAT being a more sophisticated Instrument for testing intelligence and critical reasoning, it puts the weightage of 50 to 60 percent on Group Discussion and interview. In the MAT, on the other hand, the importance attached to these two vis-à-vis the written section is only 30-40 percent. Therefore, the rejection is also very high in the CAT. Last year about one-lakh students appeared for the 11,000 seats, of which only 30,000 received final interview calls. It means, selection rate was one in three. In case of MAT, everybody can hope to receive a call, although, I may not be from an institute of your choice. A good score in the written test is a prerequisite for a student to be called for the group discussion and a persona interview conducted to assess the students, personality and demeanour, with the final selection made in the three rounds.

XAT on the other hand is conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur for admission to Post Graduate Management Jamshedpur in XLRI Jamshedpur and many other top MBA Colleges, Institutes, reputed B-Schools in India. For admission to, two years Post Graduate Programme in Business Management (BM ) and Human Resource Management (HRM), One year General management Programme and Four year Fellow Programme in Management. The Test contains Questions on three abilities or skills. These are, Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability

Sr. No.		CAT	MAT	XAT
1.	Test Pattern	CAT has a total of 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 60-70.	MAT has a total of 5 sections in the test and the total number of questions is 200.	XAT has 3 sections in the test and the total number of questions may be more than 100.
2.	Test Duration	The test duration in CAT is 2 hours and 15 minutes plus an additional 15 minutes for tutorials.	The duration of MAT is 2 hours and 30 Minutes.	The test duration of XAT is 2 hours 30 minutes.
3.	Mode of Test	CAT is Computer based test.	In MAT, students have the option of attempting either a paper-pencil based test or computer based test.	XAT is a paper-pencil based test.
4.	Eligibility Criteria	Candidate must hold a Bachelor Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA.	Candidate should be a graduate, those who are in their final year of graduation can also apply for MAT for provisional admission subject to completion of their graduation.	Candidates who are graduate and are in their final year of graduation can apply. Candidate with less than 50% marks in graduation are also eligible to apply.
5.	Frequency of the Test	CAT is conducted in a year.	MAT is conducted 4 times in a year - February, May, September and December.	XAT is conducted once in a year, during the month of January.