CAT glitches: IIMs assure fair evaluation

<p style="text-align: justify;">At a time when MBA aspirants are rapidly losing faith in the Common Admission Test (CAT) to the IIMs, which faced widespread technical<br />glitches across the country after the test went online this year, the IIMs are going all out to persuade students that the assessment process will be a fair one.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />In a recent release, the IIMs have stated that they are analysing and categorising problems the aspirants had to put up with. In addition to rescheduling the exam for those who were unable to appear for CAT due to technical glitches. Students who were affected by the technical snag a second chance to crack the test, the IIMs have assured. The premier management institues are now in the process of identifying the affected candidates, based on data received from several sources, including media reports and discussions on blogs as <img style="border: 3px solid black; margin: 3px 4px; float: right;" src="https://images.shiksha.com/mediadata/images/1261199700phpMjC6Yz.jpeg" alt="" width="147" height="134">well as websites.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />According to the IIMs, video footage exists from every room and every test administration and is now being reviewed to identify the labs that were affected.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />"We have received analysis of computer data identifying candidates who experienced any form of disruption/rebooting of their machine. This is helping us analyse the nature and extent of problems that the candidates faced so that we can identify candidates who were genuinely affected by them,'' stated the release.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />The IIMs are also looking into the emails and telephone calls received by the CAT Candidate Care Centre, as well as the site and audit reports made by Prometric (the company that administered CAT online) and NIIT personnel in charge of the labs at the test centre.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />While the IIMs have said that an estimated 8,000 students "faced difficulty of various kinds in completing the test'', students felt the figure is grossly underestimated.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />According to the IIMs, of the 2.42 lakh students who registered for CAT, 10% (which works out to 24,000 applicants) were absent for the test. The IIMs said that a similar percent of the total registered students were absent last year too.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />But students pointed to the possibility that those who could not take the exam due to technical glitches and were hence not marked present, may have been lumped in the "absent'' category too.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />While many students complained that questions were repeated during the course of the 11 days over which CAT was administered, the IIMs have denied this.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br />"A few common situations may occur across different tests forms, but key data has always been different in all, and each situation was asking a different question or requiring a different analysis. These may have given an impression that questions have been repeated when that may not be true,'' said the IIMs.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Source: Times of India</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Date: 19th Dec., 2009</strong></p> <hr /> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>For further details about related courses and colleges please click below:</strong></span></p> <p><a title="Related courses and colleges" href="https://management.shiksha.com/">Related courses and colleges</a></p>