Glitches in NATA results leave students, parents anxious

This year’s National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) exam process has seen several glitches, which have lead to severe anxiety among students.

From repeated revision of their scores to unexpectedly low marks, the exam process has been a one replete with challenges for students, they explain. The Council Of Architecture on Monday announced the scores of the Drawing paper of NATA exam on its website. However, just hours later, the site went down following which students received an email stating that the scores they received were not to be considered.

Speaking to DH, Pradhyumna (name changed) one of the students, said the results were announced on Monday. However, several students wrote to the Council stating that they had scores much lower than what they had expected.

Hours later, they received an email that read “Dear candidate, Kindly ignore the score card those who have downloaded today, the final score card will be available on 6th June 2018. You will get a communication to download the same. Regret for the inconvenience caused.” (sic)

Pradhyumna had secured a rank within 100 in the NIFT exam. “I was expecting a score of 45 on 80. I got only 22 in drawing. This is the case with several other students who have aced other competitive exams,” he said adding, “I downloaded the marks sheet at 5.30 pm. After a few hours, the site had crashed. We received the mail later stating that these scores were not to be considered.”

The email created panic among several parents as well. Revised scores were, however, published on Tuesday. “My daughter got a score of 20.5. She was very upset over it. It had created so much anxiety at home. Releasing scores that were not to be considered, created so much panic among students,” complained Jeet, one of the parents. She also blamed the Council for hosting the results on a private site. She said that it could have lead to these glitches.

NATA exam comprises two sections- Mathematics and General Aptitude and drawing. While students were asked not to consider the drawing marks, that of aptitude was revised time and again leading to confusion, students said.

“I got a score of 88 in aptitude on May 15. A week later, fresh scores were released which said my score was 92. On Monday, when I checked my score, it was updated to 94. All this happened without any intimation and has created so much confusion,” said Vishal (name changed), another candidate.

Students are also a worried lot as these scores are to be submitted to the Karnataka Examinations Authority for counselling three days after the results are declared. “We have been receiving revised scores time and again. How can we be assured that the score we have now is final and that there has been no glitches during evaluation?” questioned Vishal.

When DH tried to contact the Council president, there was no response.