First and foremost, for all those concerned with whether the IIMs will select the "cream" of the candidates, the CAT is step 1 of the process and is only given a weightage in the overall selection process (RTI shows that the IIMs give weightage to other aspects such as GD/PI, academic records, etc. as well and this is something they can subsequently address by considering the number of calls they send). Secondly, it just seems to me like all those who are apprehensive that they did not do well are taking this as a chance to complain and get a second attempt. News flash: just because you have attended a coaching institute does not qualify you for the IIMs - in fact, I am against coaching for competitive exams because the stress should be on the best candidates, not the best coached candidates (needless to say I did not attend coaching, and a lot of the noise seems to be coming from there). For those whose tests were really screwed, I'm sorry but my suggestion would be to keep your chin up and do your best at the rescheduled test, and remember that its how you do at the this one that counts. Also, cheating is an unavoidable part of any exam conducted at this scale but I guess the attempt of the institution should be to minimise the advantage to the cheaters. And you cannot cheat at the GD/PI stage anyway so the weeding out process will take care of that. Overall, my real concern is that the paper was easier than I expected and that too many others would have performed better.
My name is Apoorv Kalra. And my Testing ID is SR5878086. I had my appointment at Garden City College, bangalore on 5th december at 3:30 pm. I was unable to give my exam as the software hung thrice and I lost time for no reason. It was rescheduled to Kormangala centre for 6th december at 3:30 pm. At this centre the infrastructure was pathetic and unfortunately again the system allotted to me did not have power connections done and later they realized that the software itself was not installed on their machine. Finally after 2 hrs of tussle they alloted me a spare seat. And within first half an hour of my test some Database error obstructed the course of exam for all the students at the centre. After an hour exam started for half of us whereas other half created a chaos at the centre as many of them were not residents of bangalore and travelled from different places to bangalore (not for the first time, as this centre was specifically made for the ones who have already been through the trauma). Finally when I was in last 1 hour of my test again a power failure happened. I just gave up at 7:45 pm that I cannot give the test this way. I waited at the centre till 9 pm with few other students to have a ticket number. And as of now i don't have a confirmation from anyone on my reschedule. I am really tired and psychologically devastated as I really prepared hard for CAT and I just wanted my 135 minutes in peace. Please help me put my voice across to IIMs.
I would politely disagree with the views that CAT has "miserably" failed. I think it's an initial step towards computer based test for thousands of candidates therefore there out to be a few mistakes. For those who missed out the exam due to any problem must be given a chance for a re-exam. I don't agree with the fact that there should be a re-exam as it will waste a lot of resources. As for point no. 4 is concerned I think it's pretty genuine and must be answered by the CAT mgmt team.
TODAY I GAVE MY CAT PAPER AND I FELT THAT THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER PROBLEMS THAT ARE YET TO BE DISSCUSSED:
1. THE MONITORS AT MY CENTRE WERE TRADITIONAL(CRT) ONE WHICH IS REALLY PAIN IN READING PASSAGES. AT SOME CENTRES THEY HAVE TFT MONITORS AND SOME CRT? IS THIS WAY TO CONDUCT ONLINE EXAM......
2. THEY TAKE MORE THAN HOUR TO FINANLY START THE TEST TILL THAT TIME U HAVE TO SIT IN FRONT OF COMP........
TODAY I GAVE MY CAT PAPER AND I FELT THAT THERE SO MANY PROBLEMS THAT ARE YET TO BE DISSCUSSES:
1. THE MONITORS AT MY CENTRE WERE TRADITIONAL(CRT) ONE WHICH IS REALLY PAIN IN READING PASSAGES. AT SOME CENTRES THEY HAVE TFT MONITORS AND SOME CRT? IS THIS WAY TO CONDUCT ONLINE EXAM......
2. THEY TAKE MORE THAN HOUR TO FINANLY START THE TEST TILL THAT TIME U HAVE TO SIT IN FRONT OF COMP........
cat has failed miserably...wait till final student has appeared.different difficulty level is yet to b discussed..wait my friends...someone is getting damn easy paper and someone real tough!its utter nonesense..how a merit can b judged!only solution...challenge CAT in supreme court and seek justice..jago cat takers jago...this is the time to save CAT AND IIM image!!!! kashyap
The worst manner in which an event can be organized - CAT 2009 by the citadels of management training. CAT is not a level playing field this time. Some candidates have got an unfair advantage by sending dummy candidates and memorizing questions. The least expected scenario, the questions/pattern repeating in subsequent tests have created a situation where the class of 2012 will not have the cream of the lot. This has become an exam where all sort of fraud is becoming so obvious. Even heard that some candidates are resorting to restarting their system to get the benefit of additional 10 mins to solve questions. Don't know how much of this is true. But the questions are repeating and that is absolutely true. Another major drawback of the test is that the difficulty level of the test is not the same throughout. Moreover, the overall standard of the questions have really gone down. The major victims will be bright candidates who make silly mistakes when compared to those who memorize the questions by rote.
The most logical conclusion would be to scrap this online drama at least for this year and conduct a fair paper/pencil based test.
What is the proof that the prometric evaluation system will not be faulty?? What is the proof that prometric employees will not help their relatives? What was the harm in prevoius ways of examination? WHat about transparensy of test?? If virus can affect the exemination system server What is the guarantee that virus will not affect evaluation system?? There will be more chaos at the time of result. These tests must be cancelled and new tests in the old pattern must be given.
Re: How much money was given to prometric?
by shashank mankotia on Dec 03, 2009 12:08 AM
wow... a lil too cynical aint we?
1) no system is fool proof. in the paper based exam the OMR sheet can be misread too. 2) the same set of belief that invigilators dont help out students in other exams. 3) large manpower requirements. inefficient. slow. requirement of large security features while transportation of questions and answer sheets. outdated. ease with which the questions cud be leaked. 4) please explain how a test where your answers can be indefinitely stored in memory is less transparent than in a system where your answer sheet could be simply lost in a sea of other identical sheets. p.s. u wont gain access to either anyway. 5) the same guarantee that a virus wont effect the system which was reading the omr sheets and change the answers of the guy who developed the virus.
How much money was given? whatever was asked by prometric to conduct an nationwide exam to cater lakhs of students over 10 days. then the money required to find and book available campuses with the infrastructure to hold the exam. then money to pay the examiners and the money to train them. then to provide and maintain the servers with high level of security. in case u think u can figure out the cost, u wud b wrong cos if u did u wudnt need that mba degree that u r trying for.
as for your final comment on chaos and old pattern. chaos is a remote possibility and in case it does happen it wud be cos of resistance of few individuals to change.
Re: Re: How much money was given to prometric?
by jyoti malhotra on Dec 03, 2009 01:22 AM
1)the fool proof excuse is flawed..to make CAT fool proof...it went online..so please dont use this excuse..adequate simulated mocks should have been conducted..i dont have an MBA..but it dosent take one to figure out..what u need is something called common sense. 2)the sheer fact that u dont consider the much larger number of variables involved in the online system..and hence cannot equate in terms of the paperbased test,shows your ignorance..if ur beliefs are still under doubts in the online versions then why have one?...same set of beliefs should suffice for the PBT... 3)you talk as if no man power is required in the online system..the man power here is even more..and more expensive(who do u think trains the staff,develops the software(nt a gr8 one at that)?..who monitors the screens at each center,am guessing its manpower..which is expensive)..now dont give a vague statement saying it costs less in conducting the online test...because it dosent..it costd $40 million..the only reason it was conducted online was to reduce the discrepancies in the result,and provide a level playing field....which clearly it hasent provided..soo please dont give your theories on change and resistance...and dont use those remote possibilities as an excuse..when infact the system was made to reduce exactly those possibilities..which u seem to be fatuously defending..period! ps-am guessing u dont have an MBA...else i wouldnt have to waste my time to reply a flawed post,with vague assumptions
Re: Re: Re: How much money was given to prometric?
by Tejinder Singh on Dec 06, 2009 09:55 PM
While all of us think that entrance tests are a panacea for all ills of education, we ignore the performance of the students during their regular classes (graduation, for example). To ensure that students are sincere and regular in their studies, the final selection list should be compiled by giving some weightage (say 30%) to marks in the qualifying examination as well.
Re: Re: How much money was given to prometric?
by Tejinder Singh on Dec 06, 2009 09:52 PM
While the change is good (when it happens to others!!), the point is that sufficient trails should have been in place before embarking on this change. It is better to gain experience with and during a low stakes examination rather than just jump during a high stakes one.
