Firms to help make online CAT more adaptive

Even as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are planning to go online with its common admission test (CAT) by next year, speculation is rife that the institutes are considering two companies for possible outsourcing of the test.

Of the four companies known to be in the race to conduct CAT 2009, IIMs are believed to be keen on hiring ETS Prometric and Pearson VUE. The other two companies that have been reported to be on the shortlist are Bangalore-based Eduquity Career Technologies and Mumbai-based Attest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech.

Satish Deodhar, chairperson, admissions, IIM-Ahmedabad, says: “The IIMs are in discussion and are looking at a number of companies. But nothing can be said on finalising any vendor so far.”

Representatives of coaching institutes believe ETS Prometric and Pearson VUE could be able to match up to the IIMs’ requirement of a computer adaptive test. The adaptive test helps gauge the ability of the candidate and also raises or lowers the level of the next question accordingly.

Nandkumar Bhujbal, marketing head, Career Launcher, Mumbai, said: “The computer adaptive test format matches the ability of the candidate and raises or lowers the difficulty of the next question accordingly. ETS Prometric and Pearson offer these formats, which are also the best possible instruments to assess the skills of a candidate.”

While ETS Prometric is a US-based company that handles global exams, such as the GRE and TOEFL for admission to universities and colleges in the US, UK-based Pearson VUEs is the sole testing partner worldwide for tests such as the Graduate Management Aptitude Test.

Ajay Arora, director, TIME, said: “The most important thing that IIMs need to consider, while selecting the companies and the test format would be the data on the performance of the students. The success of the computer adaptive test will depend on how the difficulty level of a question is perceived by the students.”

Over 250,000 students across the country attempted the test this year for nearly 1,800 seats at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and hundreds of other top business schools in the country.

Students would now have to wait till 9 January, when the results of the CAT will be announced on its website. Selection to the Post-Graduate Programme at IIMs and other institutes would be based on criteria which include the candidate's performance in CAT, academic record, work experience and performance in group discussion and interviews.