The most prestigious Management entrance exam in the country Common Admission Test - CAT 2017 is all set to be conducted on 26th November 2017 (Sunday) in two sessions, as per the official notification released by the conducting body IIM Lucknow in the evening of 29th July 2017. Common Admission Test will lead to admissions in IIMs and leading colleges that offer management programs in post graduation.

Candidates can register for CAT 2017 between 9th August 2017 and will close on 20th September 2017 at 05:00 PM. The students can download the admit card starting from October 18, 2017 (Wednesday).

This year CAT will be conducted in test centers spread across approximately 140 Test Cities and students are allowed to choose among those 4 test centers as per their priority.

Official tutorial to understand the format of the test will be available on the CAT website from 18th October 2017. Candidates are allowed to pay their registration fees only through online mode, which is ₹ 900 for SC, ST and PwD category candidates and ₹1800 for all other categories of candidates.

The CAT results are likely to be declared by the second week of January 2018. Students appearing for  CAT 2017 must remember that this year admit card shall be valid until December 31, 2018.

A very important aspect of CAT registration process that many students tend to forget is that they must declare and maintain a valid and unique email account and a mobile phone number throughout the selection process so that any communication from authorities becomes easy and convenient.

Professor Neeraj Dwivedi is CAT 2017 Convenor. As per statements taken by newspapers, the pattern of CAT exam will be same as last year. There will be questions divided in three sections namely Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability. Overall duration would be 180 minutes or 3 hours.