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ShareBangalore: For the third consecutive day, technical snags prevented many students from appearing for their online Common Admission Test (CAT).
On Monday, four test labs at the Garden City College were closed because of these glitches and around 25 students were forced to return home without appearing for the exam.
Even those who managed to take the test at the other seven labs had to go through a tough time. The test started 75 minutes late and many students faced difficulties in logging on to the system."Though we were facing problems at our lab, the Prometric guy came really late. Some students were not able to log into the system and had to wait for help," said Naveen, a candidate.
Especially furious were those students who had come down to Bangalore from neighbouring places like Karwar. With university exams round the corner, they said that they might not be able to appear for the CAT on the re-scheduled dates.
"My fifth semester BCom exams will start from December 8. So if my rescheduled CAT exam dates is after that, I can't take the test this year," said one of the candidates. Due to the mayhem outside the centre, many students appeared tensed.
"I work for the Income Tax department in Panjim, Goa. Bangalore and Pune were the closest centres and I chose Bangalore, due to the proximity. If my test gets cancelled, I will not bother to come back to take them again," said Sanjay Biswas, a professional.
Repeated technical snags and news of exam getting hampered have made students jittery, even in centres where there's no problem. Many students felt distracted."I could not read the comprehension with full focus as many of my fellow mates' computers were acting weird and they were frantically seeking help.It is difficult to do well in the test amidst so much shouting and screaming," said Venkatesh Prabhu, an IT professional. The second session also was a facsimile of the morning session. Around 30 frustrated students returned home without taking the test.
Meanwhile at the CMR Institute of Technology and Management, around 25 students had to face the brunt of technical glitches. "The exam started at 10.15 am and after 20 minutes, many of the students' system hung. They were not able to continue with the test and the invigilators told that the exam will be rescheduled for some other day," said Hemanth V, a professional, who luckily managed to complete his test.
In Vivekananda Degree College, the CAT aspirants did not face the usual problems. However, one student's exam got cancelled because he clicked the "review" button before the completion of the exam. "Students at our centre did not face any technical problem. But, one of the students in my row clicked the review button mistakenly and could not give the exam. We got to know that we were not supposed to click the option, but none of us were told so before the tests started,"said Gautham S, an engineering student. The particular erring student, however, has been told that his exam will be re-scheduled.
For some, logging on to the system took time at the start.
"Till 10.45 am, I was trying to log-in as the system kept rejecting my login number," said Rig Divyanshu Preet, an employee with Bharat Electronics.
