Engg student, tutor from Mumbai ace Maharashtra MBA CET

MUMBAI: Two candidates cracked the state's MBA/MMS common entrance test (CET) with identical top scores for admissions to B-schools. The state's CET cell announced the results on Sunday. Fifteen students managed to get 99.99 percentile in the test. Prapti Shanbhag, an engineering student and Patrick D'Souza, a coaching class owner, aced the test with 99.99 percentile and a score of 164 out of 200 marks. While 1.11 lakh students registered for the test this year, close to 1.03 lakh took the test on March 9 and 10.

D'Souza, a serial test taker, appeared for the state's CET for the 10th time. He has topped the exam thrice till now. The 43-year-old, who runs a coaching class. After completing his MBA from JBIMS, he joined a corporate firm. He quit within four years and got into full-time teaching. "The pattern keeps on changing once in three to four years. It has become tougher over the years," said D'Souza, who appears the test to understand the changing pattern.

Nikhil Shetty, 25, also managed to score a 99.99 percentile in the CET, but with a score of 156. Though he scored a decent mark last year, he did get into JBIMS. This was his second attempt in CET. With a 99.07 percentile in CAT, he is expecting an admission call from one of the IIMs too, he said. Shetty graduated in B E (electronics engineering) from VJTI in 2016 and had taken up a consulting role in a leading auditing firm since then.

Hemang Panchmatia, programme director of a leading coaching institute said that the scores are on predicted lines and that the cut-off at JBIMS is likely to be around 145. For Sydneham Institute of Management Studies, the cut-off could be around 142, he added.