Common Admission Test , CAT 2012 for admission to Post Graduate Programme at 13 IIMs and over 100 of elite B-Schools of India  has witnessed a  4.2 percent rise in the number of candidates.
CAT 2012 which commenced on October 11 and would last till November 6 is saw a record 8.6 percent increase in the candidature of girls while for boys it was merely a 2.6 percent.
The data was revealed by IIM Kozhikode which is the organizing body for CAT 2012.
For Reserved categories OBC saw a highest increase in participation by 17.3 % while SC Â and ST increased by 5.0% and 7.4 % respectively.
Candidates from an engineering background continue to dominate the total pool with 67.6%. As in the past, a large number of the applicants are either fresh or have work experience less than 6 months. However there is a substantial increase of 43% in the test takers with 2 – 3 yrs work-experience.
“Efforts are on to have a relook at the Common Admission Test (CAT)…Some changes that will be helpful for people from other discipline,” said CAT 2012 convenor and professor at IIM-Kozikode SSS Kumar.
IIM-Kozhikode director Debashis Chatterjee said the aim is to have a broad-based talent of human pool across disciplines and the best minds.
Managing director of Prometric India Soumitra Roy which is partnering with IIMs in holding the test said by the end of today, over 36,000 candidates would have appeared for the test, being held in a staggered manner till November 6.
The top 5 cities in which candidates have scheduled to test account for 40.7% of the total number of registrations New Delhi (21224), Bangalore (19553), Mumbai (16895), Hyderabad (16138) and Pune (13368). Based on candidates’ residing address, Maharashtra has the highest number of registered candidates (31040). This is followed by Uttar Pradesh (25270) and Delhi (21507).
Close to 17,000 students appearing this year have come with two to three year experience. Percentage of candidates coming from agriculture and architecture background have also increased.
However, candidates appearing from Humanities stream have dropped from 3,780 last year to 3,404 this year.
“The shift in candidate pool in terms of gender and social balance, as well as work experience, is a positive indication that our society is becoming more aware of the opportunities that are available,” said professor SSS Kumar, CAT 2012 convenor.