IIMs pass the buck on RTIs to Prometric

The Right to Information (RTI) applications filed by CAT aspirants may finally end up revealing nothing. In reply to a couple of RTIs, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) said Prometric, the testing and assessment institute, has the answers. But, Prometric is not covered under the RTI Act.

“We appreciate your concerns. IIMs have assigned the technical job of delivery of CAT and scoring to Prometric. We only have scaled scores and percentiles, which have been communicated to all candidates through the official CAT website. The CAT centre itself does not have any other records or information you seek,” said IIM Ahmedabad, in reply to two RTIs filed by aspirants.

IIM-A also said that to facilitate quick communication in the matter, it has made an arrangement to respond through its candidate-care service. “Prometric will give an appropriate response on behalf of IIMs,” the RTI reply added.

Though Charles Kernan, chief operating officer of Prometric, yesterday admitted to the lapses and delays in the CAT process, he said, “It is the IIMs that are subject to anyone filing the RTIs.”

“We don’t understand this. IIMs don’t want to take responsibility. We even called up Prometric today, but they said the database is evaluated by ETS in the US and Prometric has no clue about how it happens. This is frustrating,” alleged a student from Chennai who did not wish to be named.

In a related development, the IIMs today clarified the concerns expressed by the stakeholders of the first computer-based CAT-2009.

Satish Deodhar, CAT convenor, said: “IIMs being public institutions, do get RTI queries in all departments round the year. In the context of CAT, we receive some RTI queries every year, even when CAT was a paper-pencil test. We have arranged to answer them in the past and will continue to do so as required.” Deodhar acknowledged that he had received six-seven RTI applications.

Addressing the need for psychometric equivalences, he said, “CAT is not a computer-adaptive test, but there is always a need for establishing equivalences across different tests. Of course, while IIM faculty have come up with tests of similar difficulty levels, the different tests certainly are not identical tests. Therefore, standardisation is needed and it is a wrong perception that the IIMs should have formulated tests with equal difficulty levels and that scaled scores are not necessary.”

He ruled out an immediate transition from computer-based test to computer-adaptive test in the near future. “Computer-adaptive test is a distinct possibility for CAT, but it will not be four-five years before we move into that direction,” he said at a press conference at IIM-A on Wednesday.

Computerised-adaptive testing is a form of computer-based test that adapts to the examinee’s ability level by selecting questions so as to maximise the precision of the examination based on what is known about the examinee from previous questions.

CAT-2009 entrance exam, meanwhile, will be reviewed by the directors of all the eight IIMs by the end of next month, when it will also be decided whether IIMs will continue with the contract award to the US-based Prometric.

(Additional reporting by Chitra Unnithan and Vinay Umarji in Ahmedabad)