CAT exam for admission to prestigious Indian Institute of Management i.e. IIMs is conducted every year in November. Starting 2009 cat exam will be online on the patterns of GMAT, GRE.

It will be conducted on computer without internet through prometric centeres in the month of November/December over a period of 10 days. The exam will not be computer adaptive as per official confirmation from IIMA.

The pattern will be more or less same as last year except that a candidate reads question on a computer terminal and clicks on the correct answer.

At the test venue, each candidate will be seated at a desk with a computer terminal and he/she will be provided with a writing pad with numbered pages for calculations. After the test, candidate must leave the pad including all the pages in it at the desk. Rough-work cannot be done on any other paper/sheet as nothing will be allowed to be taken inside the test hall.

The exam pattern is such that it tests candidates ability to solve problems fast and based on reasoning and analytical skills which is required in today's business environment.

The paper consists of following sections.

1. Quantitative Ability

2. Data Interpretation.

3. English (Verbal/Reading Comprehension)

You can study the cat syllabus for details.