To avoid a repeat of the chaos seen this year in the first few days of the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are thinking of doubling the testing window period next year to make the process smoother.
“It seems more feasible to extend the test window than to conduct the test throughout the year. We are considering to double to number of days of the test next year, so that the pressure on the infrastructure lessens,” said Samir Barua, director of IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). He said that against a 10-day test window, a 20-day test window will allow the IIMs to use less number of computers with more options.
Barua said the IIMs would not consider putting up their own infrastructure for testing, as it was too costly and the assets would not reap benefits. On asked whether the IIMs would review the performance of Prometric, the company contracted by the IIMs for conducting CAT this year, Barua said, “We are ready to review whether this agency has been too poor to execute its job or not.” The institute is also mulling doing a case study on its experience of CAT 2009.
Meanwhile, IIMs and Prometric have said that a new test date will be announced in about a fortnight, to provide an opportunity to candidates who could not take the test due to genuine reasons. Prometric would inform all such candidates about the date and the venue for the test.
For CAT 2009, the IIMs originally had a 10-day testing period from November 28 to December 7, which was extended by a day to December 8. On December 8, the last date of the exam, the test will be conducted in 20 centres across 100-odd labs.
187,000 candidates take CAT
Despite the chaos that characterised its start, 187,000 candidates completed the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) in the first nine days of the exam. As part of its process to reschedule students who couldn’t take the exam due to technical hassles, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Prometric conducted exams for 26,800 candidates on December 6 across 32 cities.
“New appointments have been provided to candidates who either had been unable to take test or had a less than complete test experience. Computer viruses were the cause of the majority of the rescheduling that was required. Nearly 20,000 candidates have been rescheduled and most of them have subsequently completed their test,” said Prometric.
Addressing candidates’ concerns that their results may have been affected by viruses that prevented testing, Prometric has verified that no results have been deleted or modified by a virus attack. “The majority of sites and candidates have tested without incident and their performance indicates that most candidates had a valid and fair experience,” said a statement from the company.
