(Photo credit: Michael Surran)

Bucking the trend of marginal increases in other MBA entrance tests, 27% more candidates will take Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) University’s NMIMS Aptitude Test (NMAT 2012) this year compared to last year’s NMAT 2011. The registrations for NMAT 2012, which closed on October 10, 2011, clocked 50,800 candidates over the previous year’s 40,000.

The test — which is used by NMIMS Business School to conduct admissions to its core and specialised MBA programs — will be conducted in a time-frame of three months starting from October 31, 2011.

“The reason (for the increase) may be that the applicants value studying in the city of Mumbai or at NMIMS,” said Vice Chancellor Dr Rajan Saxena during a press briefing today.

Asked whether the shutting down of proprietary entrance tests of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) might be related to increased NMAT numbers, Saxena disagreed. “If you see the profile of candidates who write the CAT, FMS, JMET or XAT, they are mostly the same. I don’t think we are cannibalising on those candidates. On the contrary these factors should have led to further growth in CAT numbers,” he said.

NMIMS expects the NMAT 2012 numbers to increase further and settle at around 55,000 when the late registrations for NMAT 2012 close on October 20, he added.

NMIMS started its computer-based test during the 2009-10 admission season. It introduced the option of candidates being able to attempt the test thrice during its three-month window starting the 2010-11 admissions season. The idea being that the best attempt of the three would be considered for the next stage of the admissions process. However, each attempt also cost another Rs 1,650.

Is the three-attempt option just another way of monetising the admission process? Dr Saxena denies this vehemently. “On the contrary, I have incurred a loss because I have to spend on the cost of capacity which might not be used,” he said.

Despite the availability of the option, very few test-takers attempted NMAT thrice last year.

As per the data for NMAT 2011 (used for last year’s admissions) provided by NMIMS, of the 40,000 who registered, about 31,000 actually appeared for the test. The second attempt option was availed only by 10% of that number — around 3,000 candidates. The third attempt saw an even lesser 1% of the total first-attempt turnout at 336 candidates. There were about 450 fulltime MBA seats — both core and specialised — on offer at NMIMS Business School last year.

Drilling the data further down throws up very interesting insights into the correlation between the chances of a final admission offer and taking the test more number of times.

For instance, of the 3,000-odd candidates who sat for two NMAT 2011 attempts, 1,283 did worse in their second attempts. Therefore their first attempt scores were considered for the next stage of the admissions and of those only 311 met the cutoff mark while 144 were offered final admission.

Of the 2,000-odd who managed a better second attempt, 523 cleared the cutoffs and 257 were sent final offer letters. Hence for nearly two-thirds of the 3,000-odd candidates who opted for the second attempt, the decision proved to be a good one.

What happened to those who took NMAT 2011 thrice? Of the 336 candidates who attempted NMAT 2011 thrice, nearly half — 153 — scored the best in their third attempt. Among the third-attempt group of candidates, 49 cleared the cutoffs and 33 were offered admission.

In the final analysis, the strike-rate of the second-attempt group — a strike being defined as getting a final admission offer because of the decision to take another attempt and calculated as the number of final offers arising out of a better subsequent attempt score divided by the total number of people taking that attempt — was 7.8%. Among the third-attempt group, the strike-rate was higher at 9.8%.

Of course, at less than 1% of the total registered base of NMAT 2011, there were hardly any takers for three-attempts in NMAT 2011.

Would NMIMS still continue to allow three-attempts despite the dismal numbers appearing for them? Dr Saxena contrasts NMAT to GMAT. “There is a trend, say in the case of the GMAT, where only 5% opt for the second attempt. But in the case of NMAT 2011, 10% have taken the test for the second time. This despite the fact that the GMAT scores are accepted by a large number of schools across the world, whereas NMAT is only used by NMIMS,” he said. “So we will continue with the option of allowing candidates to appear thrice for NMAT. The goal is to bring out the best potential of the test-taker.”

Candidates can take the second test three weeks after the first attempt, after getting the results. According to Saxena, it is usually after the candidates feel they have not done well enough in the CAT that they appear for the NMAT the second time.