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Online CAT preparation with MBAKarma

August 13, 2007 · Posted in India Web 2.0

Public entrance exam tutorials are a huge business in India. Be it the JEE or the CAT, there’s a thriving industry riding on the backs of aspirants hoping to ‘crack the exams’ and getting admitted into the reputed IITs - IIMs.

MBAKarma is a service that hopes to get a share of this pie by offering online SimCAT’s for CAT aspirants. If you are like me, the first thing you’d be wondering is what a SimCAT is. Well, SimCAT is brief for Simulated CAT’s - the term seems to have originated from IMS Learning Resources and the idea is to simulate a true CAT environment.

So, here’s how the service works. Once you sign up for the service, you can register for any of their upcoming, scheduled tests. All the registered users give the same test on the scheduled date-time. The participants are then given their percentile scores, which gives them an idea of how they fared at the test.

So, how is MBAKarma different ? After all, IMS (one of the biggest CAT coaching centers) already conducts 8 SimCATs nationwide, with thousands of aspirants taking their SimCATs. Well, MBAKarma’s USP is that they are the first service to provide an online channel for taking the SimCATs. So, anyone who’s interested can take their SimCAT right from the comfort of their home. Moreover, existing providers of online mock CAT tests seem to provide a GMAT like interface, where you can only see one question at a time. MBAKarma aims to make this interface more intuitive, more user friendly. The couple of other features that Sudhanshu, the founder, pointed me to were

(1) the provision of a social network where people can share and discuss what they learn

(2) Integration of Google talk into the service, so that users can discuss and interact

The other important distinction that MBAKarma provides is the pricing - its a flat Rs 50/- per test. So, users do not have to pay for any test they do not take. Take the first test and feel that you’re not cut out for CAT, dont take any additional tests. This pricing model (along the lines of Software as a Service - pay for what you use) makes much more sense than the Rs 1500/- for 8 tests that IMS charges.

The MBAKarma founding team mainly comprises of Sudhanshu Raheja, who blogs at Gyaan Sutra.

Overall, I think MBAKarma fills a big void. By combining the convenience of the Internet and a suitable pricing scheme, it has the potential to become quite popular with the target demographic - that is, if they can market it well. The biggest roadblock, in my opinion, is the popularity of existing offline competitors like IMS. With more than 18000+ users taking their SimCATs, the percentile scores will paint a more accurate picture. So, MBAKarma will have to see a large user adoption in order for their users to see the value of the percentile scores.

If you are a CAT aspirant or someone who’s closely familiar with CAT and CAT preparation, I’d like to hear what you have to say about the service.