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MBA Exams 2014-15:

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For all MBA aspirants eyeing Admission 2015, this article will help you plan your schedule for different MBA exam preparations and also tips from Experts and Toppers on how to prepare for MBA exams 2014-15

With around more than half a dozen MBA entrance exams in the country, aspirants sometimes are grilled with various doubts and queries such as:

- Should I register for all the MBA exams?

- Do I have to take coaching for each MBA exam?

- Should I give online Exams or paper pencil test?

- Which exam to prepare first?

This and many more doubts linger in the minds of MBA aspirants preparing for MBA entrance exams.

For all MBA aspirants eyeing Admission 2015, this article will help you plan your schedule for different MBA exam preparations and also tips from Experts and Toppers on how to prepare.

IIFT 2014, NMAT 2014, CMAT September 2014, MAT Sep 2014 and IBSAT 2014 have already announced their registration and exam dates while CAT 2014, XAT 2015 and SNAP 2014 exam dates will be announced soon.

Following is the detailed calendar of various top MBA exams along with their Application deadlines, exam dates, Mode of Exam and Result Date.

MBA Exams 2014-15 Calendar

Exam Name	Application Deadline	Exam Date	Mode of Exam	Result date
CAT 2014 Exam*	First week of August, 2014 till last week of September 2014.	October 2014	Online	Second week of January, 2015
XAT 2015 Exam*	2nd week of August to last week of November	January 4, 2015	Paper Pencil	January 31, 2015
IIFT 2014 Exam	September 3, 2014	November 23, 2014	Paper pencil	NA
NMAT 2014 Exam	September 24, 2014	October 7 - December 20, 2014	Online	January 22, 2015
SNAP 2014 Exam*	September, 2014 till November 2014	December  2014	Paper Pencil	January 2015
CMAT  September 2014	August 25, 2014	September 25 to 29, 2014	Online	October 30, 2015
IBSAT 2014	December 1, 2014	December 10 to 31, 2014	Online	January 19, 2015
MAT 2014	August 23, 2014	September 7 & September 13, 2014	Paper Based Test & Online Both	September 2014

* Yet to be officially announced. Based on previous years assumption.

CAT 2014 exam:

IIM Indore is yet to announce the Application and exam schedule of CAT 2014 exam. CAT 2014 exam registration is expected to be announced from first week of August to last week of September.

XAT 2015 exam:

Entrance exam conducted by XLRI is usually held on first Sunday of January every year. The official announcement is yet to be out but the XAT 2014 registrations are expected to start from 2nd week of August to last week of November.

For Any query on XAT 2015 exam, Click below to get the Official Answer from representatives:

IIFT 2014 Exam:

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) has announced the schedule for conducting its National Level Admission Test for MBA (IB) batch 2015-17 courses at its Delhi and Kolkata campuses. The test is proposed to be conducted on Sunday, November 23, 2014 in 20 major cities across the country. The last date of submission of completed application forms in either mode is September 3, 2014.

IIFT MBA(IB) admission 2015 entrance test is  a paper pencil mode multiple choice objective type written test (in English). It generally consists of questions covering English Comprehension, General Knowledge & Awareness, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Analysis.

Test will be conducted on Nov 23, 2014 with duration of 2 hours from 10 AM to 12 noon.

NMAT 2015 Exam:

SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), India’s leading private University has announced NMIMS Management Aptitude Test (NMAT) 2015registration open for admissions in its School of Business Management for academic session 2015-17.

For Admissions in NMIMS full-time Management Programs at Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad campus, applicants shall be able to take online NMAT 2015 test in a window period of almost one and a half month from 07th October to 20th December 2014. The last date of registration for NMAT 2015 is 24th September, 2014.
For more details on NMAT 2015 exam, 

SNAP 2014 exam:

SNAP is proposed to be held sometime in December 2014. The entrance test is conducted for MBA admission in 13 Symbiosis B schools offering various management courses. 

Registration for SNAP is expected to open sometime in the month of September, 2014 and may continue till November 2014.  SNAP is a paper pen and Multiple Choice Questions(MCQs) based examination of two hours duration.

The test comprises 180 questions divided in 4 sections of Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension; General Knowledge and Current Affairs; Quantitative Ability and data interpretation; Analytical and Logical Ability. Maximum marks are 180 and there is a provision of 25% negative marking for wrong answers.

Connect with SIBM Bangalore Admission Team

CMAT Sep 2014 exam:

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced the schedule for conducting First National Level Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) to select suitable students for admission in management programmes for academic year 2015-16.

According to AICTE the candidates will be given two opportunities to appear in CMAT for admission session commencing in 2015; first in September, 2014 and Second in February, 2015. The better of two scores will be used for admission for PGDM/MBA batch 2015-17.

AICTE has opened the online registration window for CMAT Sep 2014 today on July 3, 2014. The registration window will remain open till August 25, 2014. CMAT 2015-16 first test will be held in 62 cities all across India in a 5 day test window from September 25 to 29, 2014.

There will be 2 test sessions of 3 hours each on every day; the first one will be from 9.30 AM to 12.30 PM and the second one will be from 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM.

For Latest updates on CMAT Sep 2014 exam, Click below:

IBSAT 2014 exam:

ICFAI Group comprising IBS Business Schools has announced the dates for IBSAT (IBS Aptitude Test) 2014 for admission to various management programmes in the session beginning 2015. IBS was established in 1995 and has 9 campuses in India.

Registration for IBSAT opened on July 15, 2014 and will continue till December 1, 2014. IBSAT is proposed to be conducted in 22 days test window beginning from December 10 to December 31, 2014 across the country.

IBSAT 2014 will be an online computer based test to be conducted at 100 test centers across India.  This test scores the applicant’s ability in quantitative techniques, data interpretation, data adequacy, vocabulary, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension. The duration of test is expected to be of 2 hours with 125 questions.

MAT Sep 2014:

AIMA MAT September 2014 registration will end on August 23, 2014. MAT Sep 2014 will be held both in paper pencil and Online Mode on September 7, 2014 and September 13, 2014. MAT Sep 2014 Results is expected to be out on the last week of September 2014.

Tips from Experts and Toppers: 

CAT Topper Sneha Mittal, Says:

Once you prepare well for an examination like CAT, others are much easier, but that doesn't means they don't need enough time and preparation. For example,

CMAT : For CMAT, you need to keep your GK finely tuned. You cannot prepare that in a day or two. So keep that in mind while you prepare for CAT, Read newspapers daily, and stay updated with the current affairs.

XAT : Practice essay writing on a regular basis. As XAT has an essay writing section which makes a huge difference in the final selection. Also, as XAT has Maths on a tougher side, do not panic when you are unable to solve the questions. Please do not attempt if you are unable to solve any question. Even a score of 5-10 will get you 90 percentile in XAT. Prepare for the other sections by seeing the previous year papers.

NMAT : Utilizing and planning your time and attempt strategy is important here. Appear for a lot of mock tests, and develop a strategy as to how you should go about it, and which section you should choose first. Next, make sure you attempt all the questions. Keep the last 2 minutes for randomly attempting the unattempted questions. This is because NMAT does not have any negative marking, so there's no harm in attempting.

CET : Appear for a lot of mock tests. See the solutions and solve the previous year papers. This will help you know which questions are too difficult to solve and hence should be left or attempted randomly (no negative marking here also). Try to speed up by giving mock tests.

CAT Topper Anubhav Kunnel Says:

Well, to be honest, CAT and XAT are 2 totally different tests. CAT is a time challenging test. You need to identify the easier questions at the beginning itself and also try to maintain a good accuracy. On the other hand, XAT may appear relatively tougher at first. The key is to attempt only the questions you are sure of. This is the reason you can get a 99 percentile in XAT even if you attempt barely 40% of the questions with a good accuracy
For CAT,I practiced a lot and improved my speed. I focused mainly on the DI section and LR section. I scored as much as possible in these 2 sections. I was a bit wary of the RCs and so attempted very carefully.
For XAT, the decision making section was a bit of a problem for me. So, in the run up to the exam, I concentrated mainly on this section only. Also, all the major exams would be finished by the time of XAT..So, the preparation you have done for CAT will suffice. The only extra thing you need to concentrate on is the Decision Making section because XLRI puts a lot of emphasis on this section.

CAT Topper Aayush Agarwal Says:

One should always prepare for CAT 1st hand. There is ample time between CAT and other exams to gear yourself up accordingly.

The major difference between CAT and IIFT & XAT is that while CAT is a Computer Based Test, IIFT & XAT are paper pencil based.

Also, the amount of time you get for each question is far less in IIFT & XAT than CAT (where you get approx 2 minutes per question).

Best way to prepare for IIFT, XAT, SNAP and NMAT is by giving the respective mock tests. These tests throw up some questions which are different in format from CAT. You can refer to "A modern approach to Verbal Reasoning ' by RS Agarwal for practicing those types of questions.

CAT Expert Mr. S.K. Agarwal says: It will be better for the MBA aspirants to choose the best entrance tests in 2014. While CMAT, CAT, NMAT, SNAP will be on line tests, IIFT will be paper pencil mode. Except CAT almost all the MBA entrance tests have inserted a testing section on General Awareness which should also be prepared along with other Quant, Verbal, Di & LR topics. MBA aspirants should choose at least 2 on line and 2 paper pencil mode tests. CMAT Sep 2014 may or may not be attempted as CAT scores are also accepted by the B schools who accept CMAT scores. Besides, you have the opportunity to appear in the second CMAT in Feb 2015 which will give you the same opportunity as CMAT Sep 2014.