CAT ends today, contingency plan ready

Updated on: Tuesday, December 08, 2009

New Delhi: 'virus-hit'on CAT ends today prospects of some candidates missing out the entrance and prompting the authorities to prepare a contingency plan.

Nearly 1.87 lakh candidates have appeared in the test till yesterday as about 2.41 lakh candidates have registered for it.

American firm Prometric today said if any candidate would miss out the opportunity within the testing period, fresh chance would be provided in the coming weeks. 'While the main testing window for the CAT 2009 will end on December 8, 2009 as scheduled, any registered candidate who may not have had an opportunity to complete testing by that date will be intimated of a subsequent date and venue for
testing over the coming weeks,' it said in a statement here.

'All candidates can be assured that they will receive an opportunity to test,' it added. The CAT has been disrupted by virus attack from the first day of the test, which was supposed to be held over ten days.

About 8,500 candidates could not appear in the test in the first four days due to the glitch. There were allegations by a few students in Bangalore that they were denied a chance to appear in the examination for this year as they could not reach before two hours of start of the test.

'I reached my test centre at 1.45 pm while my test was at 3.30 pm. But I was not allowed to write the exam. The authorities at Garden City College told me that my chance for appearing in the test for this year is now gone,' T Kumar, a candidate in Bangalore, said.

About 20 students were not allowed to appear in the test today at that centre. Prometric said a record number of about 26,800 candidates sat for and completed the CAT yesterday. Owing to disruption of the test by 'virus attack', about 20,000 candidates have been rescheduled and most of them have
subsequently completed their test successfully, it said.

The test, which was supposed to end on 7, was extended till today owing to disruption. It will be held during the morning session tomorrow in 20 cities. The firm ruled out apprehensions that results of some candidates may have been affected by viruses.

'Prometric's ongoing reconciliation processes to date have verified that no result has 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,' the statement said.

CAT ends today, contingency plan ready

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