With the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) booking out dates between February 20 and 28, 2012 for its Common Management Admission Test (CMAT), the Maharashtra state government has decided to push their management entrance examination Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (Mah-CET) to March 11, 2012.

Confirming this, an official from the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra government in Mumbai said, “Mah-CET was initially scheduled for February 26, 2012. But, AICTE is conducting CMAT from February 20 to 28 nationwide, and there are many aspirants who would be writing both the entrance exams. This clash of dates will put a lot of pressure on these aspirants. Hence, we have decided to postpone Mah-CET to March 11.” The official also added that the official notification about the change in date would be put up on the DTE website by today.

Around 92,000 candidates had applied to appear for Mah-CET in 2011.

While a postponed test is likely to delay the admissions schedule at b-schools that accept the Mah-CET scores, schools such as LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research in Mumbai said that the change in dates will not change their decision to continue accepting Mah-CET scores.

Dr Suresh Ghai, Director General of Mumbai’s KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) was rather surprised with the news. “Since we have already announced the acceptance of Mah-CET score for PGDM (Financial Services), PGDM (Retail Management) and PGDM (Exec) programmes, we will not go back, otherwise the students who have applied to our institute will suffer,” he said. He further added, “For MMS though, there is no option, as Mah-CET is the only test mandated by Maharashtra Government. For other programmes, we have to see how many candidates are likely to apply with Mah-CET scores and when the results are likely to be announced.”

KJ Somaiya has kept the last date for receiving the application forms as April 15, 2012 for PGDM (Financial Services), PGDM (Retail Management) and PGDM (EXEC). “If there is delay of about a week or so in declaration of results then we will adjust our process, but if there is too much delay then we would complete the other process and then add CET. I hope we will be able to complete the process as scheduled, by compressing our processes.” said Ghai.

Piyush Kanhekar, an MBA aspirant from Nagpur was rather happy with this news. He said, “This will give me more time to prepare for the examination. Besides, my SNAP went really well. I am looking forward to Mah-CET only because I am aiming for Welingkar and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai.”

But another aspirant Ketki Arvind Vardekar, a BSc graduate from Mumbai had a different view to share. “We have already prepared for the CAT, so I do not think I need any more time to prepare for Mah-CET. All this while, there was a one-month gap between other entrance examinations and Mah-CET, and now they have pushed it even further. There is almost a two-month gap now, and then we would also have to sit for group discussions and interviews at various schools. This feels like a hassle. But I will write the exam nonetheless, because I am aiming for colleges like JBIMS, KJ Somaiya and Sydenham-Mumbai, which accept Mah-CET scores.”