Technical glitch continues to mar CAT for third day; IIMs in touch
There was no end to the plight of IIM aspirants as technical glitches continued to disrupt the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) for the third consecutive day today.
Candidates could not appear in the test at a few centres in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ghaziabad due to technical problems due to malfunctioning of computers at these places.
The situation was worse at a lab in IMS Ghaziabad, where students protested for not being able to appear in the test.
About 2.41 lakh students are scheduled to appear in the test for admission into seven IIMs and a few other B-Schools.
The American firm Prometric, which has been awarded an USD 40 million contract by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) to computerise the prestigious CAT, did not prefer to make any comment on the fresh developments.
The IIM directors are livid with the exam delivery of Prometric. They held a meeting with the representatives of Prometic last evening.
Nearly 4,000 students could not appear in the test in the first two days of the ten-day long staggered exam that started on Saturday. The Prometric yesterday said the problems occurred due to virus attack which could be checked.
Yesterday, the test was rescheduled at 24 centres for carrying out repairs.
Candidates, who could not appear in the test, have been notified and their exams are being rescheduled within the testing period, said Prometric.
The firm has said it has generated new appointments for individuals who could not take the test and they are in the process of being contacted through SMS and email messages.
The launch of the computerised CAT involved delivery of exams at more than 360 testing labs in 104 centres.
The computer-based test was marred by technical glitches on Saturday soon after the exam was started. Students faced problems in opening the computers at the exam centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Bhopal.
The labs that were closed yesterday include 11 in Bangalore, eight in Bhopal, six each in Lucknow and Mumbai, five in Delhi, four in Ghaziabad, two each in Varanasi and Hyderabad and one each in Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Kolkata and Coimbatore.
IIM-A director in touch with other IIMs
Ahmedabad: The director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is constantly in touch with his counterparts in other IIMs to solve problems regarding the first computer-based CAT (Common Admission Test), institute officials said here today.
"This is for the first time that the computer-based CAT was introduced with a window of ten days. And as we saw, there were some initial hiccups during the delivery of exam," they said.
"This is an entirely a new experience for us where 2.41 lakh student are taking the on-line test," they added.
The director of IIM-A, Samir Baruah has been in constant touch with other institutes since yesterday and is trying to find out a solution to the problem, they said.
