MAT 2026 Exam Dates and the PBT vs CBT Format Choice

Exam Updates

An aspirant reads that MAT offers three formats and picks the third one. Internet Based Test, taken from home, multiple dates per cycle, no travel. It is the obvious choice for anyone balancing MAT against a CAT preparation schedule, and it has not been available for some time.

MAT now runs in two formats, Paper Based and Computer Based, and AIMA's own site lists only those two for every 2026 cycle. The Internet Based Test was withdrawn. That matters more than a simple correction, because the whole appeal of MAT to a multi exam candidate was its flexibility, and losing IBT removes a real part of it.

The Format That No Longer Exists

Internet Based Test was a remote proctored format, taken from home on a choice of dates within each cycle. In a May cycle a few years ago, for example, IBT ran on three separate dates while PBT and CBT each had one.

That multi-date flexibility was its genuine advantage. A candidate could schedule around a CAT mock, a college exam or a work commitment in a way a single fixed date does not allow.

AIMA's current site describes MAT as available in Paper Based and Computer Based modes, and no 2026 cycle has listed IBT. The absence is consistent across every official 2026 announcement. The precise date of withdrawal is reported by aggregators rather than announced prominently, but the current position is not in doubt.

PBT and CBT Side by Side

The two surviving formats differ in delivery and in nothing else that affects your score.

Factor	Paper Based Test	Computer Based Test
Where	Allotted physical centre, pen and paper	Designated computer test centre
Dates per cycle	One fixed date	One fixed date, usually a week later
Questions and time	150 questions, 120 minutes	150 questions, 120 minutes
Marking	Plus 1, minus 0.25	Plus 1, minus 0.25
Sections	Five, 30 questions each	Five, 30 questions each

Because pattern and marking are identical, the choice is genuinely about how you work rather than about which is easier. Some candidates read faster on paper and prefer annotating a passage directly. Others are faster on screen because every other exam in their season is computer based and consistency reduces friction.

The fees are set per mode, with a single mode costing less than taking both. Taking both in one cycle is explicitly available and priced accordingly, which is a legitimate strategy if the dates suit you.

The 2026 Schedule as It Stands

MAT runs several cycles a year, and the confirmed dates for the most recent one are specific.

• September 2026, Paper Based: exam on 13 September, with registration having closed on 7 September and admit cards released on 10 September.
• September 2026, Computer Based: exam on 20 September, registration closing 14 September, admit cards on 17 September.
• Earlier 2026 cycles: a February cycle whose tests actually fell in early March, and a May cycle with PBT at the end of May and CBT in mid June.
• December 2026: not announced at the time of writing. Any December date currently circulating is unofficial.
• 2027 cycles: nothing announced.

Note the naming quirk in the February cycle, where both test dates landed in March. AIMA brands cycles by an approximate month rather than by the month the exam falls in, which is a small thing that causes real confusion when you are building a calendar.

The Format Choice Audit: 3 Questions Before You Register

Since the paper is identical either way, the decision reduces to three practical questions.

Question 1: The Week Between Them

In the September cycle the two dates were a week apart. For a candidate in the final stretch of CAT preparation, that week can be the difference between sitting MAT during a heavy mock phase and sitting it in a lighter one. Choose the date first and let the format follow, rather than the other way round.

Question 2: Paper or Screen

A paper with 30 reading comprehension-heavy questions and 60 quantitative ones rewards whichever medium you process faster. If every other paper in your season is computer based, there is a consistency argument for CBT. If you annotate heavily while reading, PBT may genuinely suit you better.

Question 3: Both in One Cycle

Taking both formats in a single cycle is permitted and priced as a combination. It effectively gives you two attempts a week apart, which is worth considering if MAT scores matter for your target institutes and your calendar can absorb two exam days.

What the Paper Looks Like in Either Format

The structure is worth restating because it drives the preparation decisions rather than the format does.

MAT is 150 questions in 120 minutes across five sections of 30 questions each: Language Comprehension, Intelligence and Critical Reasoning, Mathematical Skills, Data Analysis and Sufficiency, and Economic and Business Environment. There are no sectional time limits, so you allocate the two hours yourself.

Marking is plus 1 for a correct answer and minus 0.25 for a wrong one, a considerably gentler ratio than CAT's, which shifts the guessing calculus in favour of attempting.

The single most useful structural fact sits in AIMA's scoring documentation: the composite score is built from the first four sections only, with equal weightage, and the fifth section is reported separately. That changes where your preparation hours are best spent, and most summaries either miss it or state it vaguely.

What the Loss of IBT Actually Costs You

It is worth being specific about what changed, because the practical effect is larger than a format disappearing from a list.

The value of IBT was never that it was easier. The paper was the same. Its value was optionality: several dates inside one cycle meant MAT could bend around whatever else was happening in your season. A mock clashed, you moved the exam. A deadline landed badly, you moved the exam.

With two fixed dates, that optionality is gone and MAT now behaves like every other paper in your calendar. It has a date, the date does not move, and you either prepare around it or you skip the cycle.

For most aspirants the correct response is simply to treat it more seriously at the planning stage. A paper you can move is one you can decide about late. A paper with a fixed date and a registration deadline a week ahead needs deciding about a month out, and that shift in planning horizon is the real consequence of the change.

Registration, Fees and Eligibility

The practical details are straightforward and worth confirming on AIMA's own site before you commit, since fees rose during 2026.

The fee is set per mode, with a higher combined fee for taking both formats in the same cycle. Eligibility is a bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university, with final year students awaiting results permitted to apply. AIMA itself does not impose a minimum percentage, though participating institutes commonly ask for one.

Scores are valid for one year, which is the detail that makes the multi cycle structure useful. A score from an earlier cycle remains usable while you decide whether a later one is worth sitting.

One caution on sources. AIMA maintains an older frequently asked questions page that still describes a 200 question paper and the discontinued IBT format. It is live, it looks official, and it is out of date. Use the main site rather than that page.

Fitting MAT Into a CAT Heavy Calendar

MAT asks for less preparation than any other paper in a typical season, and it still needs a decision rather than a drift.

Pick One Cycle Deliberately

The repeatability tempts people into leaving it open. Choose a cycle, register, and treat the date as fixed. An unregistered intention is not a plan, and each cycle closes a week before its exam.

Prepare the Format, Not the Syllabus

Your CAT work covers the content comfortably. What needs rehearsing is 150 questions in 120 minutes with no sectional walls, which is a pacing problem rather than a knowledge one.

Protect the Week Around the Date

Block the day before and after in your calendar deliberately. A personalised CAT preparation plan that accounts for the exam day keeps a single paper from costing you three days, and our guide on sequencing multiple papers in one season covers the broader calendar.

If MAT is one of four or five papers in your calendar and the whole thing has never been sanity checked, that is worth doing. A CAT preparation strategy review will show whether the paper count is realistic.