UPSC tougher than CAT, says IIT, IIMA

According to IIMA 2006 pass-out, Pruthviraj Mina, appearing for CAT and securing admission to one of the most prestigious B-schools in India was quite easy as compared to appearing for the Union Public Service Commission exams.

Born into a family of IAS and IPS officers, the UPSC exams were a natural move for Mina, who is also an alumnus of IIT Mumbai besides IIMA. And on his very first attempt, he secured a rank of 874.

Weighing the parameters of CAT and UPSC exams, Mina said, "Appearing for UPSC is a completely different ball game and there can be no comparison between the exams I have appeared for in the past and the UPSC exam."

"When preparing for UPSC exams, you require lot of time, patience and the results are absolutely unpredictable, like in my case, I expected a much better result than that I have secured. Compared to that, after three hours of answering the questions in CAT, one can easily predict the percentile score," he said, adding that he was not satisfied with his UPSC ranking.

The UPSC exam takes place across a span of one year, beginning with the preliminary or elimination round in the month of June, wherein nearly 3 lakh students appear of which around 12,000 get selected.

"Scores gained in the elimination round are not even counted for the remaining two rounds, which is the main examination round in October and the interview after that. Meanwhile, CAT preparation takes not more than three to six months," explained Mina.