Kalpana Pathak, Chitra Unnithan & Vinay Umarji / Mumbai/Ahmedabad Mar 05, 2010, 00:25 IST
Even as many students got calls from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other business schools for personal interviews and group discussions, many others are upset with their low scores in the Common Admission Test (CAT) and are raising a “transparency” issue with the institutes, besides mulling legal action.
The IIMs were just recovering from the uproar over technical glitches during the CAT. Now, at least five students have filed applications under the Right to Information (RTI) law. More are said to be in the offing. Students that Business Standard spoke to did not wish to be named, but said they are also in discussion with lawyers. More, some IIM professors are said to be lending support to the entire initiative, as they were themselves not happy at the manner the first computer-based CAT had been conducted.
The issue largely revolves around the lack of transparency in the marking scheme and lack of access to details on the test papers. A few faculty members of a test-preparing institute, who also took the CAT exam, said their score was as high as the 90th percentile, though they did not attempt most questions. “We have a team of people who take the exam from our institute. We divide the sections among us and attempt only that. So, many of us just attended one section, but have ended with scores as high as the 86 to 90 percentile. We are sure this has happened to students across the board,” said a faculty member from one such institute.
“IIM professors have told us to go ahead and file a complaint, as none is coming forward with an explanation on the procedure they used to score us. Besides, Prometric (the agency conducting the test) has also not been helpful in removing our doubts,” said a student, who said he had scored highly in the US-administered Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) but not in CAT, “despite it being an easy paper”.
After IIM-Ahmedabad said it had replaced its admission procedure from a point-based system to one with more weightage to class X and XII marks, students have been upset about not having been informed earlier. A CAT candidate said, “It is unfair of IIM-A to change the admission procedure after the results, although they may have the right to do this. The entire CAT 2009 had been a shock for us and this only makes matters worse for us.”
“Many are not happy with the results, as some of them have scored as high as 99.2 per cent in XAT (test for admission to XLRI and XIMB) and only around 96 per cent in CAT and are getting calls from top business schools but not the IIMs. Also, it is unfair for the IIMs to change their admission process at this time,” said Gautam Puri, vice-chairman, Career Launcher.
“We don’t try to search for different permutations and combinations by excluding a particular criterion like Class X or XII scores while screening candidates, as we do not want to come across as biased. Instead, we feed all the pre-requisites of selection criteria into a system and send call letters to all those who fit the eligibility criteria. As for replacing the point-based system of gauging academic performance with a straight 70 per cent score in Class X and XII exams, the move was to simplify the whole process and not discriminate any student,” explained Diptesh Ghosh, chairpersons-admissions of IIM-A, in response to the allegations.
Students, meanwhile, have also written a letter (signed by over 100 students) to the IIMs and faculty members on the issue. “Prior to the CAT examination, IIM authorities had categorically stated that the difficulty levels across papers in a slot were consistently maintained by generating a large number of questions of equal difficulty to establish equivalence; but now have introduced a vague term in the scorecard, ‘Psychometric equivalences’ to adjust for the difficulty levels. There seems to be a contradiction. We students are confused to see such a marking scheme introduced without prior notification before the exam and till now, no explanation has been given from the IIMs or Prometric,” states the letter, among other things.
“It is the right of the candidate to know about the changes in marking scheme, if any, prior to the examination. None of the IIMs or Prometric informed us regarding differential marking. IIMs were following only equal marking all this while. In the absence of the appropriate information regarding the changes in the examination and evaluation pattern, many serious candidates are now in a state of shock and disbelief. At the same time, many low-scoring candidates have expressed their surprise on the high scores,” said a student from Delhi.
“If the IIMs and Prometric are sure of their methodology and calculations, please make the detailed scores of each candidate public. Let there be no doubt in the minds of the students, by making each parameter of CAT 2009 transparent,” asserted another student.
Actually this is not the question of only IIMs what about the other premier B schools..They are not even disclosing what they're gonna do. After working hard for nearly 10 months I feel cheated..I got 93 percentile in XAT and 33 percentile in CAT..Even my close friends cant believe it..All rubbish. HRD shud help us rather that concentrating hard on 10th & 12th Board exam and busy changing pattern.
Posted by: Vinod
March 19 , 2010, 23:00 IST
Hi
Amit
If you want to do MBA in NCR then one is good B.School in Gurggaon, which
name is IILM Institute For Higher Education and highest salary has 7 million in this year if you want to intersted then kindly contact or SMS 09350784142
See, i feel that IIMS and prometric should upload detailed scores of each student. They should clearly mention which questions i did right, which wrong and then they should also provide solutions to questions from each slot. This way we would know where we did mistakes OR where IIMs+Prometric did mistakes !
the problem with the iims is very obvious...they have little faith in the very exam they conduct...the CAT...shocking to read that iim bangalore has only 20% weightage to CAT scores! the rest is divided between 10th and 12th marks...if this is so, then i would request all iims to give call letters in the future right after the board exams are over...and stop this nonsense of pretending to have a fair system!
The bad conduct of exams might just affect the reputation of IIMs, but it has affected the lives of millions who dared to dream.And that too by unfair means...we request the authorities to please please take the necesasry actions.Please re-conduct the exam..let the game be played fair!
i have got 91 percentile in quant, 88 percentile in reasoning and just 13 percentile in verbal. i've mailed them to send how many question i've answered and which of them i got wrong, but they aren't providing answer. they have just spoiled my future
Thanks a lot for business standard for making our voices heard ..during a time when aspiring to pursue mba from the supposedly top management institutes of India , is seemingly turned into a literal nightmare ...courtesy - prometric and IIMs' management. This has been seriously n depressingly heart-breaking for many aspirants (including me) who are only shocked in disbelief over the arrogance and lack of transparency being shown by the IIMs. Only in India folks ...only in India ....(still... one day I vow to be instrumental in changing this weak and vague SYSTEM
I don't think the marks of class X or XII should be considered as a part of the selection procedure. They should consider the marking scheme of different boards and universities as it is not as same as they are thinking. So by my mind this criteria must be withdrawn by the IIMs or many deserving students will loose their dream due to this dictatorship. And the most important thing is to withdraw this online test and get back to the most secured paper-pencil test. This will help a lot to maintain and enhance the reputation of the IIMs.
CAT 2009 and subsequent selection process have left many aghast. First, there were problems in taking examinations affecting many candidates psychologically. Then some candidates who could have taken difficult slots suffered as their slots were easier and their marks reduced for no fault of theirs by applying Statistical tools. Thirdly, IIMs disowned CAT, reduced its weightage and started juggling with various criteria. Fourthly, while applying these criteria across State Boards further and unknown Statistical tools were applied. It is anybody's guess as to who would have been finally selected and who not.
IIMs are behaving as if they are all knowledgeable, supreme in their intelligence and answerable to none.
How is it that no weightage is being given to Graduation scores while 10th and 12th marks are being given weightage? It is simply baffling. IIMs are behaving like Lords with total freedom and complete arbitrariness.
Yes, it is correct to know the whole proceedure. My son was expecting call from all the IIM's but was shocked to know the IIM's score.
People must move to court to get to know the basis of their score card.
awesome article...thats the way to go..kudos.. its the first step in order to get justice for thousands of students who have been undone wrongly.. great job business standard!!!!
Posted by: Mridul
March 15 , 2010, 19:57 IST
Despite of getting 98.5 percentile no call from any IIM till date including spjain. God knows why like this despite of having 88-89% in Class X and XII. Will some IIM faculity clarify why this discrimination.Please reply
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