10,000 get CATcall for January 30 and 31

There seems no end to trouble for aspirants seeking admission to B-schools, including the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

After the technical glitches in the examination —held online for the first time in November-December last year — fresh controversies have resurfaced. Trainers who prepared the candidates for the exam said that students who successfully took the online test, and were happy with their performance, too had been told by the CAT organisers to take retest.

Initially, the phase-II of the CAT seemed to have meant only for those who missed out on the exam owing to glitches in the software. But Parag Chitale, founder and director, CPLC, said, “A number of my students who had no problem taking the online test have received calls for re-exam on January 30 and 31. More than 10,000 students will be taking it.” To make matters worse for the candidates, the re-exam dates have clashed with the NMAT, which goes online this year, and the conventional CET, he added.

Candidates who appeared for the CAT in November-December, complained of several difficulties in the online format. Chitale, who himself took the test, said that the level of difficulty of questions was low.

Arks Srinivas, director, TIME said, “It is all right to ask the students who complained of technical difficulties to take the retest. But the IIMs have also asked students confident of passing to reappear.”

Professor Satish Deodhar of IIM Ahmedabad, the convenor of CAT 2009, said, “We have enlisted seven categories on the official website. Students called for the re-exam come under one or more of these categories. Also, there is a category of students who have the option not to reappear.”

Srinivas said that the re-exam call had shocked some of his students. “These are the students who are confident of success. But their scores have not been recorded. There is no guarantee the problem will not occur again.”

Deodhar countered that some candidates got almost up to160 minutes of exam time, and it was only fair to ask them to reappear.