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Manek Daruvala, founder-director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), feels that CCs provide a competitive environment to students, helping them to benchmark their preparedness vis-a-vis other students.

Besides, how many students would have the self-discipline to study on their own, asks the Hyderabad-based IIM-A graduate, who started TIME a good 17 years ago. Chennai-based IIM graduate Mythili Balakrishnan has a different opinion. She says, "A considerable number of IIM students don't take any cat entrance exam."

Tusharika Sinha, who graduated in 2003 from IIM-A, now a senior partner in iCresset Talent Solutions, prepared on her own. She subscribed to the acj entrance test material of IMS Learning, Mumbai on an IIM graduate's recommendation. "It gave me a very good understanding of question pattern and enabled me to perfect time management, which is one of the most critical aspects in clearing the CAT," says Sinha.

Abhishek Sharma, a self-coached IIM-Indore graduate, didn't go about scrutinising one cat coaching in Delhi from the other either. He decided to bell the CAT on his own. Ten years ago there weren't many cat preparation online, concedes the 35-year-old who also got selected at IIM-Calcutta.

Now working as a brand manager with US-based Becton, Dickinson and Company, Sharma reveals the secret of his success. Hard work, being part of a like-minded group and studying from quality reference material.

Sharma adds humbly, "I don't consider myself to be exceptionally gifted. I disciplined myself to study hard and formulated a few techniques." He recollects the preparation days at Udaipur, where he was an engineering student. Getting up early for a walk in the calm, cool mornings with his friend, preparing for CAT, taking two mock tests and then settling for college studies before heading for the college. His memory plays out clearly.

"After getting back from the college, both of us used to check the results to analyse and identify the weak areas to work on them the next day," recollects Sharma. The routine continued uninterrupted for 14-15 months. "While my Math was strong, I knew I had to work on my vocabulary and comprehension." So, an unrelenting spirit made him work harder. He made 10 cards of new words every day from the Barron's guide to the SAT by Brownstein and Weiner, keeping the cards in his pocket and shuffling them all day long to honour his target of learning 10 new words a day. Needless to say, self-training didn't fail him.

So, how do CCs contribute? "They are instrumental in providing guidance, mentorship, benchmarking and time management to students," says Shiva.

But a few dissenting voices flag a different argument.

Points to ponder "I would question the quality of tutoring carried out at quite a few coaching centres," says a candid Balakrishnan. "Most faculties have themselves not been able to clear CAT, so imagine what would they be teaching the students?" Her caustic tone is laced with concern.

Prashant Monga of Delhi-based Alchemist, a CAT training Institute, expresses a similar concern. The logical subtleties get lost in the face of standardised coaching, he feels. Monga abandoned a lucrative corporate career in a bid to satiate his craving for teaching. Alchemist, was therefore, born in 2006. The teaching methodology followed in the centres need a major overhaul, says the IIT and IIM graduate who experienced some classroom teaching when he had to join one on his parents' insistence.

How is it possible that such a major fundamental flaw in the pedagogy has been overlooked by the institutes over the years?

At present, best cat coaching in Delhi impart knowledge-based training, but the actual need is for intelligence-based training, stresses Monga. Intelligence-based training can be applied in unfamiliar problem-solving areas also, he adds. Why is it difficult for individuals to think of a different-coloured dhoti, one could argue. The logic feeds on self. The CAT questions don't follow a template. Rote-learning doesn't work for the CAT. It may work for school exams or exams conducted for other high-profile bureaucratic postings, says Ravi Sonthalia, a 2009 IIM-Bangalore graduate.

The CCs need to adopt a tutoring technology that sharpens the thinking ability of an individual concurs Balakrishnan. So, even when a student is faced with a question he has never tackled before, his attempt speed doesn't decrease, she says.