We can easily categorise top MBA entrance exams 2025 into four categories: national, state, institute and international examinations for admission to MBA/PGDM programs at colleges located around the world.

National MBA Entrance Examinations

Some entrance examinations for MBA are referred to as national entrance examinations because candidates who pass these exams can gain admission to MBA colleges throughout the country. CAT, XAT, CMAT, CUET-PG (MBA), MAT and NMAT fall into this category.

Common Admission Test (CAT)

CAT is the most prestigious management entrance exam for MBA, as it allows students to gain admission to various public and private sector colleges located throughout the country including 21 Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology that provide management education. CAT is administered by any of the top six IIMs located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Indore.

Approximately 2.25 lakh students take the CAT exam every year, which lasts 120 minutes and is held on the last Sunday of November in three shifts from 8.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., 12.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.

Students are expected to get a minimum of 90 percentile, which means they must be among the top 20,000 students to receive calls from top management colleges in the country and appear for written ability tests, group discussions and personal interviews conducted separately by each college.

The main findings from the CAT test 

Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT)

XAT is regarded as one of the most prestigious entrance exam for MBA after CAT and the oldest in the country for admission to the country's top MBA/PGDM colleges. This exam is administered by the Xavier Institute of Management (XLRI) Jamshedpur and the results are accepted by XLRI Jamshedpur & NCR, BITS School of Management Mumbai, XIM Bhubaneswar, IMT Ghaziabad, Great Lakes Institute, and Goa Institute of Management among other institutions. 

XAT is a 180-minute exam given on the first Sunday of January from 2 to 5 p.m. and taken by approximately 90,000 students each year.  Candidates must score higher than the 88 percentile to gain admission to good management colleges, some of which have been mentioned above.

Highlights from the XAT

CUET(PG) MBA

The independent and autonomous National Testing Agency (NTA), established by the Ministry of Education, Government of India conducts the CUET(PG) examination for admission into various PG streams in many central, state and other universities. Registration for this exam has to be done in the month of January and the examination is conducted in March-April every year.

Many central, state, and private universities, including Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi, the University of Hyderabad, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University Lucknow, Gurugovind Singh Indraprastha University Delhi and Deviahilya Vishwavidyalaya accept CUET (PG) scores for their MBA programmes.

CUET (PG) MBA is a 105-minute computer-based examination with four sections and a total of 100 questions with +4 marks awarded for correct answers and -1 for incorrect answers. 

Highlights of the CUET (PG) MBA Examination

Common Management Admission Test (CMAT)

NTA also conducts the common management admission test and scores from this examination are accepted by all AICTE-approved institutes for admission into their MBA/PGDM programs.

After achieving the desired percentile, candidates must perform well in group discussions and personal interviews conducted by each college to ensure their admission to that college.

CMAT is a three-hour exam divided into five sections, each with 20 questions, for a total of 100 questions with +4 for correct and -1 for incorrect answers.

Highlights of the CMAT examination

MAT or the Management Aptitude Test

The All India Management Association conducts the MAT, which was approved by the  Ministry of Education, GOI as a national-level test in 2003. This test is given in both computer and paper formats and lasts two hours. It comprises 150 questions with five sections: language comprehension, intelligence and critical reasoning, mathematics, data analysis and sufficiency and economic and business environment.

Some of the participating schools are Christ University Ghaziabad, UBS Chandigarh University Mohali, Chitkara University Rajpura, Fortune Institute of International Business New Delhi, GD Goenka University, Galgotia University, Jagan Institute of Management and many more for their management programs.

The NMIMS Management Aptitude Test (NMAT)

The Graduate Management Admission Council (the same agency that administers the GMAT) administers the NMAT for NMIMS. Scores from this test are accepted by colleges other than NMIMS such as KG Somaiya School of Management, ISB for its advanced management programme in business analytics, XIM University for its MBA-HR programme, TA Pai Management Institute, Great Lakes Institute of Management for its PGPM course and many others.

NMAT is becoming increasingly popular because it is a computer-adaptive test, similar to the GMAT, with no negative marking because the difficulty level of the next question is determined by your performance on the previous question. 

Highlights from the NMAT

Leading State MBA entrance examinations

Though CAT scores are accepted by almost all central government and state government management colleges, in many states, government colleges conduct management entrance exams on behalf of the government, and those scores are accepted by state government-owned colleges or private universities that receive financial aid from states in order to benefit students from their states.

Some of these exams include the MH MBA CET (Maharashtra), KMAT (Kerala), TG ICET (Telangana) and AP-ICET (Andhra).

AP-ICET

Andhra Pradesh Integrated combined entrance test is conducted by Andhra University for admission into MBA and MCA courses in various colleges and Universities based in Andhra

Pradesh.

This test lasts 150 minutes and consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. Each correct answer gets one mark and no marks for incorrect answers. The AP-ICET has three sections: analytical ability, communication ability and mathematical ability. Analytical ability is divided into two parts: data sufficiency and problem solving with 20 and 55 questions respectively. Communication ability contains four sections: vocabulary, functional grammar, business and computer terminology & reading comprehension with 15, 20, 15 and 20 questions each. The third section is mathematical ability which is divided into three parts: arithmetic, algebra & geometry and statistics, with 35, 10 and 10 questions each.

KMAT (Karnataka-Private)

KMAT is administered by the Karnataka Private Post Graduate College Association (KPPGCA) which was established in 2003 for admission to private colleges offering MBA, PGDM and MCA programs.

It is a paper-based test with 120 multiple-choice questions divided into three sections: verbal ability and language comprehension, mathematical skills and basic aptitude. Each section has 40 questions. Free access to any section is permitted.

Some of the universities that accept KMAT (Karnataka-Private) are Alliance University, Christ Academy Institute of Advanced Studies, Christ College of Science and Management, DonBosco Institute of Biosciences and Management Studies, Global Business School, Jain University, Presidency College Bangalore and 164 other engineering and management colleges.

K-MAT (Kerala)

K-MAT is used for admission to MBA programmes at various colleges and universities in Kerala. ST candidates do not have to pay an application fee, but SC and General candidates must pay Rs 500 and Rs 1000 respectively. It is a 180 minutes  exam with 180 questions divided into four sections: English language usage and reading comprehension, quantitative aptitude, data sufficiency and logical reasoning, and general knowledge & current affairs each with 50, 50, 40 and 40 questions each. Correct answers receive 4 points while incorrect answers receive a -1 point.

To be eligible for admission to various universities and affiliated colleges, general category students must score 10% of the total 720 marks, while reserved category students must score 7.5%.

MAH-MBA/MMS CET

Maharashtra established a common entrance cell to administer entrance exams for a variety of professional programs including MBA and MMS.

This test determines admission to various management colleges' MBA and MMS programmes. Eligibility for these programs is graduation from any recognised university with 50% marks for general category students and 45% for reserved category students.

This test is 150 minutes long with 200 questions divided into four sections: logical reasoning (75 questions), abstract reasoning (25 questions), quantitative aptitude and verbal ability and reading comprehension (both having 50 questions each). Each question is given one point, with no negative marking. All questions will be multiple-choice with five choices in English.

TANCET in Tamil Nadu

On behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, Anna University conducts the TANCET exam for admission to MBA and other programs in government- owned and other colleges.

A three-year degree programme from any accredited university must be completed with 50% of the possible points for general candidates and 45% for reserved candidates in order to be eligible for this exam.

In addition to 12 other cities in the state, exams are held in Chennai, Coimbatore and Vellore.

The exam would last two hours and consist of five sections with a total of 100 questions. Responses would be in the form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs), with one mark awarded for a right response and a penalty of 0.25 for a wrong one.

International MBA entrance examinations

These MBA entrance exams, which are administered by foreign organisations, have been classified as international. The two most prominent MBA entrance exams are the GMAT and GRE, which are administered by the Graduate Management Admission Council and Educational Testing Service (ETS) respectively.

In order to gain admission to India's top management colleges, international students must pass one of these tests. All students who pass this test are admitted to executive programs for working professionals offered by prestigious Indian colleges. After passing these tests, some other universities also admit students to their regular MBA programs.

Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) - Focus Edition

The most prestigious MBA entrance exam is the GMAT, which students can pass to gain admission to the best universities worldwide. Since this is a computer-adaptive test, each question is presented individually and the next question's difficulty level is determined by how well you answered the previous one. After the exam is over, the score card is available for viewing right away and the final score card is received within 48 hours.

This two-hour test consists of three sections: data insights (20 questions), quantitative aptitude (21 questions), and verbal review (23 questions).

Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

The three parts of this 118-minute test are analytical writing, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning with the last two parts having two sections each. Within eight to ten days, the test score card will be available. Tests are available throughout the year.

Top Institute-based MBA entrance examinations

Many management colleges or groups of colleges administer entrance exams for admission to MBA/PGDM programs. These tests include SNAP, MICAT, XGMT, KIIT Management, IBSAT and CUCET  among others. SNAP is conducted for admission to MBA programs offered by Symbiosis group of colleges including the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, the Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, the XGMAT by XIM University Bhubaneswar, the MICAT by Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad and the KIIT Management by Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Bhubaneswar, IBSAT for ICFAI business schools and CUCET by Chandigarh University for their different campuses in the country. 

Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP)

Apart from the SIBM Pune and SCMHRD Pune, scores of this test are accepted by some other Symbiosis group of colleges such as SIMS Pune, SIBM Hyderabad, SIBM Nagpur, SIOM Nashik etc. All questions are multiple-choice questions with 4 available options.