Here is some surprising news for those tracking the demand for the Common Admission Test (CAT). Despite a marginally higher number of registrations in 2011 compared to CAT 2010, the actual turnout of test-takers in 2011 was lower than that in 2010.

About 1.85 lakh candidates appeared for the CAT 2011 out of the 205,345 that had registered for it. Which means, that nearly 20,000 candidates chose not to attend the test despite having paid for it.

Last year about 1.86 lakh had taken the CAT, which means that despite higher registrations, the actual test-taking population was lower in CAT 2011 than that in CAT 2010.

Even the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) shutting down their entrance exams in favour of the CAT did not help maintain a strong turnout for the test.

When asked, CAT Convenor 2011, Prof Janakiraman Moorthy of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta admitted to PaGaLGuY that actual CAT takers had reduced by an approximate one thousand this year. Asked for reasons behind the fall, Prof Moorthy said that he did not look at the decrease as a ‘fall’. “Since the figures are just a thousand lesser compared to last year, I would say that the numbers have stabilised. We now approximately know what the annual CAT demand is like, now that the figures have remained in that region for the last two years.”

Of the roundabout 20,000 candidates who did not take the test, a large proportion were those who reached the exam center late or reached on time but with faulty or insufficient identity proof.

Demographic divisions among those who took the test have not changed compared to CAT 2010. From the 1.85 lakh odd who appeared for the test, 1.345 lakh were males. General category candidates amounted to 1.5 lakh while Non-Creamy layer Other Backward Class (NC-OBC) candidates were 21,700. Scheduled Castes constituted 10,600 students while Scheduled Tribes constituted approximately 2,800. All these are rounded-off figures.

According to Prof Moorthy, about 30 to 40 complaints were received in total on the CAT helpline, reporting incorrect questions and requests for a re-test for reaching the venue late or without valid identity proof.

“About a couple of wrong question complaints were genuine and are being taken care of according to the process laid out,” the convenor said.

The CAT Convenor also added that this time greater precaution was being taken to ensure that gaffes of the kind wherein candidates access their CAT results on the CAT website before the official date would not be repeated. CAT 2011 results will be declared on January 11, 2012.