Selection Criteria for IIM Lucknow

Selection Criteria for IIM Lucknow



PGP Admissions Policy 2009

This document details the process that has been developed at Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIML) for identifying the right candidates for admission to its flagship programme titled "Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management". The process, which has progressively been refined over time, is derived from the cumulative data on the Common Admission Test (CAT) and on the competency cum diversity profiles requirements of the PGP class at IIML.

IIML has observed over the years that students who perform well in PGP are typically those who have a consistently good academic record during their secondary school, higher secondary school, and graduate levels, besides exhibiting sufficiently high aptitude as measured by the CAT. Therefore, IIML uses multiple parameters, viz. academic performance in secondary school, higher secondary school, and graduate programmes in addition to the candidate's absolute scores in CAT to judge the suitability of candidates for PGP. Relevant work experience, if any, is also given due weightage in the PGP admissions process. Evaluation by multiple criteria is also consistent with the IIML's own experience with the placement of PGP students in industry.

The process accommodates the relationship of academic performance in IIML to past academic performance, CAT scores, performance in written ability test, group discussion and personal interview (GDPI), and prior work experience. The selection criteria and weights given to various parameters are based on past data as well as on inputs from the IIML faculty and other relevant stakeholders.

The process that is being adopted for selecting the promising students for PGP at IIML for the year 2009 involves two stages. The Stage-1 applies to all eligible candidates appeared for CAT-2008 to determine those qualifying candidates, who will be called for written ability test and GDPI in Stage-2. Sufficient number of candidates belonging to different categories is short listed in Stage-1 for meeting the reservation norms of IIML.

Stage-1:

To begin with, all candidates who secure minimum section-wise and aggregate percentile scores in CAT are first short listed. The percentile cut-off scores (the minimum percentile scores required) for the Stage-1 consideration are given in Table 1.

In order to identify the PGP candidates to be called for written ability test and GDPI, the past academic performance (in secondary school, higher secondary school, and graduate programme) and the experience profile of the candidate are considered as per the weights given in Table-2.

Table 1: Minimum CAT-2008 percentile requirement for first short listing


Category Section 1 (Quantitative) Section 2 (Logic & DI) Section 3 (Verbal) Total
SC 55% 55% 55% 75%
ST 50% 50% 50% 70%
PWD 55% 55% 55% 75%
OBC 75% 75% 75% 85%
GENERAL 85% 85% 85% 90%
ABM1 70% 70% 70% 85%


Table 2: Various components with weights used (for PGP)


Component Weight
Aggregate CAT-2008 score 30%
Class-X Marks 5%
Class-XII Marks 5%
Graduation Marks 5%
Experience profile$$ 5%
Total 50%

($$ The pre-GDPI score for the work experience profile is given as indicated in Table-3.)

Table 3: Pre-GDPI score for the work experience (for PGP)


Work Experience in Months Score (out of a maximum of 5)
9 to 11 1
12 to 23 2
24 to 35 3
36 to 47 4
48 and more 5

In order to identify the PGP-ABM1 candidates to be called for written ability test and GDPI, the past academic performance (in secondary school, higher secondary school, and graduate programme) and the graduation profile of the candidate are considered as per the weights given in Table-4.

Table 4: Various components with weights used (for PGP-ABM)

Component Weight
Aggregate CAT-2008 score 30%
Class-X Marks 5%
Class-XII Marks 5%
Graduation Marks 5%
Graduation profile$ 5%
Total 50%

($ Only the Bachelor's/ Master's Degree holders in select disciplines (relevant discipline codes listed in CAT 2008 bulletin are 1, 2, 3, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 27) are eligible for this weightage.)

(1 ABM stands for PGP in Agri-Business Management of IIML )




Stage 2:

The Stage-2 of the admissions process involves the assessment of the candidature by an interview panel consisting of two faculty members of IIML. The panel will conduct the following:


  • Written Ability Test (of 20 minutes duration)
  • Group Discussion (on a given topic for 20 minutes)
  • Personal Interview
  • Assessment of quality of academic qualifications, and
  • Assessment of quality of work experience profile

The weights for these components are as shown in Table-5.

Component Weight
Written Ability Test 10%
Group Discussion 10%
Personal Interview 20%
Quality of Academic Qualifications 5%
Quality of Work Experience# 5%
Total 50%

(# No credit is given to candidates with less than 9 months of overall experience)



The minimum requirement for getting a pass in the Personal Interview is 5 out of 20 marks. Sum of the scores in all the ten components (as given in Table 2 / Table 4 and Table 5) will be taken as the final score of a candidate for arriving at the merit list(s) for final selection to the PGP / PGP-ABM of IIML.



(This document is released by Prof Saji KB Nair, Admissions Chairman, IIM L on behalf of the Admissions Committee of Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.)

 

Analysis:


IIM Lucknow has used five criteria for Personal Interview calls.


  1. Class Xth marks
  2. Class X11th marks
  3. CAT Score
  4. Bachelor's Marks
  5. Work Experience

Intrepretation:


  1. IIML is the only institute which is giving weight to all the 5 common criteria's available. ( unless someone decides to give weight to extracurricular activities)
  2. There is uniform weight given to 4 criteria except CAT score equal to 10% whereas CAT score is carrying 60%.
  3. IIML hasn't shared the details within different criteria like IIMA or IIMS.
  4. As the conditions are 'OR' in nature, a student can get a call if he has done miserably in one of the criteria, i.e. is the CAT score is relatively low, but the student have done remarkably well in schooling and bachelor's, scoring over 90% marks in both the board exams, he has a fair chance to get IIML call.
  5. A strict 10% weight to work ex shows a bias for the relevant category so a fresher is at a disadvantage. To summarise, we believe that IIM Lucknow is looking for a consistent academic record of the students during the schooling, Bachelor's as well as performance in CAT. Out of 5 institutes which have shared their selection criteria till date, IIML is one which is asking for most consistency. Within the consistent academic record, IIML wants to get students with work experience vis a vis freshers from college.


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