Tips to bell CAT

Second phase of the test on Jan 30, 31

Candidates are hoping that there will not be a repeat of the technical glitches that played spoilsport with the first phase of the test in December 2009.

For the students, the first phase of CAT 2009 had given enough indications on the type of problems that might crop up. Although the instructions do not change for the second phase, R Shiva Kumar, Director, Academics and Research and Development, Career Launcher advised that students must be cautious enough before marking the answers.

Shiva Kumar said, “A candidate must make sure that he or she has gone through the instructions and the demo of the test before starting the actual test. All features have to be checked if they are working right at the beginning and this may ensure that possibility of ‘discovering’ a bug in the middle of the exam.”

Since the student, who answered the test earlier and faced the technical glitches, would know the nature of the test, the pressure on time is likely to be less. “The first round of tests had thrown enough light on the actual nature of the test. People who went through all the questions could attempt close to 80 per cent of the questions. However, the candidate must make sure that they stick to the strategy of going through all the questions and then come back to the ‘marked for review questions,” Shiva Kumar pointed out.

The director also advised that in case of any technical problem, the same should be brought to the notice of Prometric or the test centre representative immediately and to note the time when the candidate faced the problem for future record.

Tests were administered over 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities throughout India. The ten-day test window was extended for an extra day, in the first phase. As many as 2.15 lakh students had taken the computer-based test successfully, while 18,000 students did not turn up, more than 12,000 candidates faced technical glitches.