NEWS Font Size Thousands fail to appear in CAT; will get fresh chance: IIM A

Updated on: Thursday, December 10, 2009

New Delhi: Thousands of IIM aspirants who failed to appear for computer-based, technical glitches-marred CAT , will get a fresh chance to write the test.

A few thousand candidates could not appear in the 11-day-long test owing to the glitches that hit the test from the beginning. "However, there are still some candidates (numbering a few thousand) who could not take the test due to genuine reasons and test has not been rescheduled for them yet.

A new test date will be announced in about a fortnight to provide an opportunity to all such candidates to write the test," IIM Ahmedabad said in a press statement tonight, and regretted for the "inconvenience caused to the students".

The CAT, conducted by American firm Prometric, had begun on November 27. The test, scheduled to be taken by 2.41 lakh students for admission into IIMs and few other B-Schools, was disrupted by virus attack from the beginning.

About 20,000 candidates were rescheduled after the test got affected by the virus attack and other technical problems.

'We have put in place a process to identify and assess the impact of various types of disruptions noticed and reported during the entire testing period; these are being addressed to ensure fairness in testing,' the statement further said.

The first phase of computerised CAT 2009 concluded yesterday as most candidates completed the test successfully in the first slot allotted to them, the IIM said. Of the candidates who could not complete the test successfully in the first slot allotted to them, most have already been accommodated in another slot to take the test, the IIM said.

CAT was held delivered through 361 labs in 104 locations spread across 32 cities. Every edition of the test involved use of over 17,000 computers. "It was therefore a mammoth task being attempted for the first time. We regret the inconvenience caused to candidates due to disruptions experienced in the conduct of the test, particularly in the first three days' of testing," the statement said.

Candidates have reported through various channels the nature of disruptions faced that include pressing of 'End' button prematurely, malfunctioning of computer on which the test was taken by the candidate, missing graphs and charts, etc., it said.

"We would also like to state that test papers have been designed by experts to ensure that no one gets an unfair advantage. Statistical methods are commonly used to equate difficulty levels across the test papers," it said.

The IIM said it would like to assure all concerned that the outcome of the process on completion would be fair to all candidates.

NEWS Font Size Thousands fail to appear in CAT; will get fresh chance: IIM A

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