Pic from the FMS website

Another MBA entrance exam is expected to bite the dust soon. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) is in all probability going to shelve its 40-year old entrance exams in favour of the Common Admission Test (CAT). The vice-chancellor of the Delhi University will be signing the papers anytime soon. Incidentally, the FMS exam was scheduled for December 4, 2011.

CAT Convenor for 2011, Prof Janakiraman Moorthy, confirmed to PaGaLGuY that talks have been on with FMS about cancellation of the exam but a final sign by the VC is awaited. “It is almost done but internal clearances have to still come by,” he said. When asked why old and respected entrance exams like JMET and FMS (exam) are being done away, Prof Moorthy said that logistically it makes sense to have one exam. “Conducting exams means getting in order staff, setting up the paper, corrections etc. there is a lot of work involved which is also time-consuming. One exam makes more sense.”

“Also it means repetitive work for students. One exam is less study but the opportunities remain the same,” Prof Moorthy added. When told that the FMS exam has always been held in high esteem by students, the CAT Convenor replied that for a few slight differences in paper pattern, it does not make sense to hold so many exams.

In format however, the FMS exam and CAT are quite different – and according to reports almost 50 per cent of FMS exam questions have never been asked in any CAT paper.

We were not able to speak to any concerned official from FMS (a meeting is going on in the institute the whole day) but sources close to FMS, say that the entrance exam was in trouble for a while. The Delhi University had allegedly declined to help FMS with the exam this year. The university, in it defence, had said that it was facing a staff crunch and heavy work load because many of its departments were busy with their own exams. Though this news is not confirmed, it is learnt that FMS initially did not want to join CAT but preferred to support GMAT or GRE. The costs of opting for CAT are quite steep as well. There is an annual fee of Rs 2 lakhs plus a one-time fee of Rs 50,000, not to forget the additional amount (fees) that need to be coughed up per candidate.

As soon as we get an FMS official to speak to, we will add it to this article.