'8 per cent students couldn't sit for test'

The lack of transparency in the process and the miscommunication meted out to the candidates by the organisers has made the experience even more frustrating for students. With no access to help desks and a helpline, which is perpetually busy, affected candidates have had to rely on a series of assurances that have been made via dubious mails.

Deccan Herald, in a telephonic interaction with the All India Convenor of CAT 2009, Professor Satish Deodhar attempts to seek answers for some of the questions of the candidates.

How many candidates have been affected by the technical issues from all over the country?

Our initial estimates are that around 8 pc of the candidates from the first two days were unable to sit for the test. But the test was largely successful.

The test was cancelled at a number of centres on Day two as well. What about the affected students?

The test has not been cancelled. It will simply be rescheduled. And it was a collective decision to reschedule the tests at around 50 labs as a precautionary measure to fix all the technical problems.

The candidates will be intimated via email and SMS in the next one or two days about the reschedule.

Will the organiser Prometric be held accountable for the failure? Day 2 has also witnessed a series of technical troubles and delays. Further, there has been complete miscommunication from Prometric to the students.

Prometric has been successfully conducting tests and has a good track record.

As far as the action to be taken against Prometric is concerned, the directors of all the Indian Institutes of Managements will decide.

The delay has been because of software incompatibility and virus attacks on systems. Prometric will submit a detailed report on the situation by Monday. The conventional CAT format was highly successful. Why was the format altered and was there a pilot conducted by Prometric before the contract was awarded?

Prometric has been at the forefront of online testing. The Directors of the different IIMs signed the contract after a number of mock tests were conducted. Prometric gives us the technical capability and we had to provide the question bank and test forms.

Have the organisers considered the option of giving a traditional paper and pencil test to affected candidates?

The tests will be rescheduled for all the affected candidates within the 10 day window. Prometric has assured us that they have capacity to conduct the tests in all the centres. The Directors of the IIMs are the only people who have the authority to give affected candidates the option of a conventional test.