Sunday, November 20 2005 17:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The Common Admission Test (CAT) for entrance into prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), today (Nov 20, 2005) passed off smoothly at 160 venues across the country including Ahmedabad, and the results will be declared in the first half of January 2006, said Bakul Dholakia, the director of IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA).

"About 1.70 lakh applicants had applied for CAT this year, which is 12 per cent more than the 1.52 lakh that appeared in (November) 2004'', Dholakia told reporters here after the tests, that concluded amidst tight security.

"The tests have gone off smoothly at all the venues", he said adding that the results would be announced in six weeks time.

Personal interviews of successful candidates would be conducted from mid-February to March-end, he said adding that the details would be made available on its website in due course of time.

When quizzed about the reduction in the number of questions asked in CAT, he said, "I have not seen the paper. Last year they had done some experimentation with the format which was useful and this year again I believe they might have done so''.

"Setting the paper and experimentation related to it is the prerogative of the CAT group'', he said.

Dholakia said the six IIMs, which conduct CAT 'were still working' towards conducting the test on-line.

"We have not achieved the kind of progress on this as we would have liked'', he added.