CAT 2009 extended by a day

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the test-conducting agency, Prometric, have extended the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 till December 8. It was scheduled to run for 10 days — from November 28 to December 7, 2009.

The announcement comes after a series of ‘glitches’ that marred the smooth conduction of the premier management entrance test.

“As part of our planned contingency, Prometric prepared the registration and scheduling system to accommodate volumes in excess of the projected number of candidates to ensure that additional demands can be fulfilled. The test had been extended to accommodate, within this year’s testing period, all the registered candidates to whom the test had yet to be delivered. Some labs at test centres had experienced technical difficulties, mainly on account of viruses and malware. Majority of these issues had been identified and eradicated. However, Prometric, in partnership with NIIT, was continuing to monitor and assess all labs,” Prometric, the developer of the computer system for CAT, said in a press statement today.

On December 8 (Day 11), CAT 2009 will be held over one morning session in 20 cities — Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Pune and Varanasi.

The launch of the computer-based CAT involved the delivery of exams on 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities across India. By December 3 (Day 6 of CAT 2009), more than 112,000 candidates had completed their tests. Prometric is learnt to have rescheduled tests of around 5,000 of the 8,000 students who could not take CAT in the first three days due to technical failures.

“We understand and regret the additional stress and inconvenience caused to candidates who have not been able to take test on their scheduled day due to technical difficulties. We are working with IIMs to add an additional session on Day 11 to accommodate them within the city where they were originally scheduled,” said Ramesh Nava, vice-president and general manager (Asia-Pacific, Japan and Africa), Prometric.

On Thursday, the company had intimated students about communicating the rescheduling of candidates through SMS and email in the event testing might not be possible for any session at specific labs. Besides, in response to feedback from candidates, Prometric has extended the hours for the CAT Candidate Care (1800 103 9293) and added more telephone lines and Candidate Care agents to accommodate the high volume of calls. Effective December 3, the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and phone support will be available everyday from 8am-8pm throughout the testing period.

A total of 241,582 candidates registered for CAT 2009.