With technical snags forcing many students to retake the Common Admission Test 2009 (CAT2009), candidates are worried that they might have to choose between taking up the IIM entrance test and other university and competitive exams.
Final semester students of engineering colleges have exams scheduled next week. Other competitive exams like the Management Aptitude Test (MAT) are scheduled for coming weeks, December 6 and December 12 to be accurate. “I have my final semester engineering exams starting December 9. I was supposed to appear for CAT on November 29, but it got cancelled due to the server crash. I’m yet to get my re-scheduled dates. If it clashes with my semester, I won’t be able to take it this year,” said Shreyas Mahimkar, an IIM aspirant.
Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has scheduled it’s final semester engineering theory examinations from December 12. Dr KVA Balaji, registrar VTU told DNA, “By not taking the university exam and writing CAT, students stand to lose on their eligibility criteria. Our exams commence from next week and there is no question of postponing it.”
The Garden City College, one of the CAT centres in the city, has been facing frequent technical problems and several students have been unable to take the test. On Thursday also, the exams got delayed by an hour.
“Around 10 students decided to leave the test centre because they had university exams in the afternoon. Authorities were not able to tell them the when they would be able to take the test,” said Sourabh, a candidate. According to VTU officials nobody has approached the university to postpone the exams. “If we get any instruction from the MHRD or the department of higher education in the state, we can consider postponing exams,” Dr Balaji added.
Prometric and IIM authorities have not yet planned on extending the CAT testing dates beyond December 7. A statement from Prometric said, “We will try and accommodate all candidates within this year’s testing period. If there is a need to extend beyondDecember 7, the IIMs will announce the dates as soon as a decision has been made.” If a student’s rescheduled date clashes with other exams, an organiser said that in that case the student can request a change in CAT date. They can call 1800 103 9293 to make such requests.
Other competitive exams for management students includes: JMET on December 13, SNAP on December 20, XAT January 3, FMS on January 10, MAT on December 6 and December 12, IBSAT on December 27, NMAT on January 30 to February 8.
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