Kolkata & B'lore IIMs want pen-paper CAT - 12/12/2009

Updated on: Saturday, December 12, 2009

Kolkata: Days after technical glitches threw the online Common Admission Test out of gear at several centres across the country, two IIMs â€” Calcutta and Bangalore ” have mooted a proposal to scrap the online exam and revert to a pen-andpaper test, at least for this year.

Fed up with reports of disrupted exams, teachers and visiting professors at the two premier B-schools have adopted resolutions at their respective faculty council meetings on this and forwarded copies to the directors of these two IIMs.

Time is a constraint and it won't be possible to conduct a smooth online test within a short period. We thus passed a resolution urging the directors and the CAT committee to arrange for a written examination at least for this year, said an IIM-C faculty council member. The member said that in 2003, IIMs had arranged for a second written test after CAT papers were leaked in several cities.

Even as some IIMs brand this a panic reaction to a mere technical problem, faculty members of the two top IIMs feel the glitches have put CATs credibility at stake. Feedback from centres bears out that many students taking the online tests did not get a level-playing field because of systems errors. Even the sanctity of the exam was not maintained, said a faculty member from IIM-Bangalore. written test is the only alternative for this year till the online test system is error-free.

The issue will come up at the CAT December 13 committee meeting, where advisory committee members and executives will sit with the directors of seven IIMs before they take a call. IIM-Kozhikode director Debashis Chatterjee said the CAT committee has scanned the technical problems and categorised them.

Kolkata & B'lore IIMs want pen-paper CAT - 12/12/2009

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