Scrap computerised CAT, demand IIM faculties

The faculty federation at the Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta have made a resolution to their respective directors on scrapping the computer-based CAT and retaining the paper-pencil test at least for this year. Confirming this development, an IIM professor said: “We passed a resolution on December 1, 2009, asking the directors to consider scrapping of the computer-based test (CBT) for this year, as it could be an unfair advantage to some undeserving students.”

However, when contacted, one of the IIM directors said: “We are evaluating all our options at this juncture, as data is still to come. We will figure out if we have given everyone a fair chance. We are looking at all possible data regarding the examination.”

Faculty members that Business Standard spoke to at the IIMs said there was high possibility that the premier management institutes might go for a paper-pencil test. However, officials from other IIMs said they were identifying all the affected candidates, who would be given a fair chance. There has been video recording of 90,000 hours that the IIMs need to look at, from 361 labs at 104 centres.

As reported by Business Standard earlier, IIMs were understood to have contemplated scrapping of CBT CAT before deciding to wait for a few more days prior to taking such a call. Ever since CAT began on a disastrous note on November 28, several thousands of students were unable to take the test on their scheduled dates due to technical glitches, which the IIMs blamed on a computer virus.

Originally supposed to run from November 28 to December 7, CAT had to be extended by a day to accommodate students who couldn’t take the test due to the technical glitches. But even after the 11th day of the test, a few thousand students still couldn’t take the test due to their university semester exams. Nearly 241,000 applicants registered for the exam. However, till December 8, not more than 215,000 students had taken the test.

After the unsatisfactory show, the HRD ministry had demanded a report on the failure, which was given by Convenor of CAT 2009, Satish Deodhar.