Around 10% of the candidates who registered for the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year did not take the test, compared to around 9% who dropped out last year, according to the latest data. While 2.06 lakh students from across the country registered for the test this year, 1.85 lakh
appeared for it. Last year, however, fewer candidates had registered (2.04 lakh) but a higher number took the test (1.86 lakh).

CAT is the entry criterion to the Indian Institutes of Management and 155 other business schools in the country and was held this year between October 22 and November 18.

"Sometimes students drop out from taking the test because they decide to opt for foreign universities or decide against doing an MBA," said Janakiraman Moorthy, convener for CAT 2011 adding that a drop out rate of around 10% is not very unusual.

Of this year's test takers, 1,34,500 lakh candidates were male and 50,600 were female.

Of the total, 1.5 lakh were general category candidates, 21,700 were other backward class candidates, 10,600 were scheduled caste candidates and 2,800 were from the scheduled tribes.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode released registration data for Common Admission Test (CAT) 2012 on Monday. The data revealed that the number of girls registering for CAT 2012 has increased by 8.6% as opposed to the number of boys which has only increased by 2.6%. Most b-schools, though, do not see this as a very significant factor. Prof Pankaj Sinha, coordinator for admissions, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), New Delhi, says, “It is not important whether the number of girls registering for CAT 2012 has increased. The ultimate thing is the number of girls selected for the programs at various b-schools. At FMS, the number of girls in our program has decreased

Incidentally, the total number of registrations for CAT 2009 was 2,41,582 which dropped by 15.4% to 2,04,267 in 2010 and saw a marginal increase of 0.49% to 2,05,345 in 2011.