TestFunda.com, the leading online MBA Prep portal, started an online petition for Paper based retest for CAT 2009 on Sunday, 6th December 2009. Within 36 hours, the petition had received more than 1000 signatures by affected candidates. The petition can be read at www.TestFunda.com/
CAT 2009 had many issues and there were lapses on every front: technology, content, student and test centre management, and helpline issues. Some of the major issues in CAT 2009.
Content Related:
The most important issue was that CAT 2009 had questions repeated from the previous CAT papers. In addition, students have reported that questions were repeated across the slots as well. This gave the candidates in the later slots a huge unfair advantage over their counterparts in the earlier slots. One could go through the previous CAT papers in advance and save time on repeated questions, in an exam where even one mark can make a difference of thousands of ranks.
Other problem faced by the candidates was that some questions were wrong and some had no correct corresponding option.
Technology Related:
In many cases, equations or images did not get displayed properly because of which one could not read the question or the options itself.
A very useful functionality of REVIEW questions did not work for a number of candidates which put them at great disadvantage as they could not navigate easily. Some student got kicked out of the exam when they selected “End Review” button.
The exam kept crashing. Some students reportedly had had to wait for 10-15 seconds whenever they clicked the next question button. Scores of many students who completed the exam did not register and at least some of the those students were called for a retest.
Process Related:
Some candidates had to wait or could not give the exam because there names did not appear on the musters at the center, though they had valid admit cards.
Many slots did not start on time and some of the candidates could not even give the exam in the scheduled slots. Some students waited for 5-7 hours before they could write their exam.
The Administrative staff at the centers were busy in handling the problems and there was lack of quality invigilation. There are reports that in some centers people could discuss with each other. Some students reportedly shut down the computer to get extra time to solve the paper.
The situation inside most of the centres was chaotic with a lot of shouting and disturbances – not an ideal situation for writing a stressful exam.
The candidate care helpline nos were busy and were available only for limited hours. Rescheduling was a big goof up where candidates were rescheduled to distant centers, some got the intimation late in the day etc.
With the backdrop of these problems, TestFunda started the petition with a suggestion for a paper based retest. They feel that since it may not possible to create content for the CBT format in such a short time, in the interest of the students the CAT should be conducted in the paper format this year. CAT 2010 can and should be conducted in the CBT format.
Yesterday the petition was forwarded to Mr. Satish Deodhar, CAT Convener and the Directors of the IIMs along with the signatures of the students. The responses of the users to the petition can be read at online on the same link as the petition.
About TestFunda:
TestFunda.com is the leading online test prep player and was started by 5 IIT-IIM alumni.
