IBSAT or ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test is conducted for admission to 22 of ICFAI MBA colleges. ICFAI which is a big name in field of CFA and correspondence MBA programmes in India, established ICFAI Business schools for regular MBA programmes. Later, in order to establish the B school brand and to do away with all the negative publicity that ICFAI received after CFA fiasco, ICFAI Business school was rechristened as IBS, though we are still waiting to see effectiveness of brand building campaign as most of the popular ICFAI colleges are still known as ICFAI’s for example ICFAI Hyderabad.

Pattern of IBSAT 2008

Paper pattern of IBSAT 2008 will be on same lines as earlier IBSAT’s. The paper is divided in two sections with one section testing mathematics skills and other testing English skills. Both sections are timed which means that the test taker will have no advantage of stronger skill set in one of the sections. Both sections test the candidate at  a fairly basic level and anyone who has even slept through IMS or TIME or Career Launcher classes should be in a position to sail through this paper.

Starting this year, a GK test (GK for MBA exams 2008) and Essay writing will form part of IBSAT 2008. GK test will be conducted during stage II whereas Essay will form part of written test. Each candidate is supposed to write an essay on a given topic with constraints of 400 words and 2 pages. Essay will have 5% weightage in overall selection which makes it an important part of the procedure.

Good colleges under ibsat 2008

There are 22 IBS campuses all across India. Such a large sample size means that the school will remain mediocre for a longer period of time. There are exceptions though, with ICFAI Hyderabad being the most potent of them all. According to some, ICFAI Hyderabad is one of the best places if you have MBA in Finance on your mind. Though the college enjoys a reputation amongst test taker, the figures fail to impress, mostly because there are 1000 students to be placed every year. Which means placement distribution will have exaggerated extremes and a lower average placement number. Other colleges of some class in IBSAT fold are IBS Bangalore, IBS Mumbai and IBS Gurgaon. All three score on account of the cities they are in. Rest of the IBSAT colleges are all about hits and misses.

Who should apply

If,  you are not sure of your chances at bigger exams like CAT 2008, XAT 2009 or FMS 2008 and you are pretty confident about MAT and ATMA’s of the world, I would suggest that you go for IBSAT 2008. Paper is generally easy and competition is easier. Most of the candidates who fancy their chances at biggies do not sit for this exam. Number of seats is another reason you might consider before you take a call.