Over 2,000 Flocks EBS for CMAT

Over 2,000 prospective management students flocked Era Business School to take the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), the online computer-based test conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The exam was held nationwide from February 20 to 28 for participating institutions to select candidates for management courses approved by AICTE and is aimed at reducing the burden (physical, mental and financial stress) students experience attending multiple examinations.

EBS went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to helping candidates relax. Those who came to take the test at EBS in Dwarka (New Delhi) were offered tea and coffee to ‘help them relax their minds after a grueling exam’. Ankit Kumar, one those who took the test at the school said he had appeared for all the management tests scheduled for this year and this was the first time a centre had been so generous. “It was unexpected, but when the college authorities told us that we could have refreshments in their canteen to relax our minds, it felt kind of nice,” he told PaGaLGuY.

CMAT 2012, which took place in 69 test centers in 61 cities across the country and was expected to be administered to about 250,000 candidates all over India and abroad over the nine-day period, will serve as an entrance test for admission to 4,000 colleges that offer MBA and 500 colleges which run postgraduate diploma in management programs.

All-in-all approximately 1.6 lac seats will be available across the country through the CMAT. Aptech Computers, AICTE’s partner in conducting the computer-based exam, said at the end of the first day: “We have received positive responses from the 69 test centers across India.

No technical glitch has been reported to us yet. The turnout of the candidates was also pretty decent in number.” Naturally, results varied. ITM University, Gurgaon said the first slot of the test saw only 18 candidates taking the test, but Era Business School in Dwarka, New Delhi saw more than 100 candidates in the first slot of the exam. Candidates at both Delhi and Mumbai said the exam content was easy and the experience smooth due to the presence of good supervision in their respective centers.

“The exam was managed rather well, the authorities made us very comfortable and the instructions given to us were lucid,” Nikita Patki, a final-year BE student at Vidyalankar College, Mumbai, who had her centre at Khalsa College in Matunga area. Perhaps things went so smoothly at Era Business School because the institution helped clear the way for entry into its PGDM and other management programmes through CMAT and hosted trial runs for the online computer-based test.

EBS Dwarka, a part of the Era Group, is one of the top management colleges in Delhi-NCR.