CAT test of affected students would be rescheduled: Barua
IIM-Ahmedabad today assured all the affected students that the Common Admission Test which was hampered due to virus attack would be rescheduled.
Empathising with the students who could not appear for the test at some centers across the country, Institute's Director Samir Barua said their tests would be rescheduled as per convenience of the students within 10 days window (November 28 to December 7).
He further said if the tests for student could not be rescheduled within the stipulated period, they could extend the exam window by a couple of more days.
"The major reason (for the glitches) appears to be a virus attack. All precautions had been taken to insulate the labs against all kind of virus attack. But despite all the precautions it stalled the proceeding," Barua told reporters on Monday.
"However, in some places the problem was that of the hardware. Wherever possible students were moved to other centres and if it was not possible their tests were rescheduled," he said.
Around 70,000 students had appeared for the test in the first three days out of which some 10-11 per cent were not able to give the test due to technical glitches, Barua said.
"Every single candidate who has not been able to complete the test because of the technical glitch will be accommodated. That is what I would like to guarantee on behalf of the IIMs, otherwise we would have failed in our duty," Barua said.
They had planned to deal with this kind of eventuality by keeping spare capacity in each session, he said.
"However, now it is possible that the students who are rescheduled they would not get their choice, which would be restricted to a certain extent," Barua said.
"We will definitely make sure that it does not happen. But I don't think that anyone other than God can ensure that there will be no glitch at all," he said.
Assuring every student who could not appear in the test on the first and second day, Barua said, "sessions which were scheduled in these ten days had the spare capacity so we will be accommodating several students. But if this spare capacity is insufficient then we would opt for expanding this capacity by a couple of days if required."
Barua was flanked with officials of the American firm Prometric, which has been awarded an USD 40 million contract by the IIMs to computerise the prestigious CAT test.
Chief Operating Officer of Prometric Charles Kernan said post glitches they plan to increase the security level at every centre.
"We had increased security level by using biometric recognition software, picture identification and other technology features," Kernan said.
"Prior to the test we had gone through number of process which included scrutinising individual computers, but the fact remains the we were unable to get all the viruses," he added.
"What we have done from day one of the glitches is to go back to each individual labs and fix the viruses and isolate the systems from the network, we increased the virus protection in the network and also plan to increase the quality of security in all the labs," Kernan added.
They have so far rescheduled tests of 62 per cent of the students who could not appear for CAT on day one and two, he said.
About the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development seeking report from the IIMs about the glitches in the computer-based CAT, Barua said, "As far as MHRD is concerned they have asked for information and we would be able to provide as soon as we are able to get it from Prometric."
The computer-based test had been marred by technical glitches from the very first day on Saturday. Students faced problems in opening the computers at the exam centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Bhopal.
