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Common Admission Test (CAT) servers crashed across all centres in India on Saturday. Nearly 250,000 students appeared for the test. The scores of this test will determine a student’s admission to a management institute, including the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

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There had been a major change in the CAT this year as it has become a computer based test from an optical marker reading test. Around 50,000 students appeared for the exam in Delhi. The test is being held between Nov 28 and Dec 7 in 32 cities at 105 testing centres connected to a main server. IIMs have also issued a notice to all the students appearing for the exam to refrain from discussing the new format till December 7 when the exam schedule ends.

First day when the MBA entrance exam Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 went online for the first time, computer servers crashed at several places across the country leading to the cancellation of examinations at these centres. While there were numerous speculations in terms of technical/operational feasibility, paper pattern, etc. the CAT exam kicked off with numerous warnings regarding its strict non-disclosure agreement. There have been reports about technical difficulties arising at various CAT 2009 test centres all across India.

CAT 2009 exam was canceled due to server crashes resulting in many students being left in a lurch. Exams were canceled at the centres in these cities- Bhopal, Lucknow, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkatta Indore and New Delhi. A total of 2,41,582 students will appear for the exam this year, which is a marginal drop as compared to last year when 2.46 lakh students appeared for CAT. CAT scores determine entry to the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong, as well as the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, Institute of Management Training in Ghaziabad, Mudra Institute of Communications in Ahmedabad, and Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research in Mumbai.

Difficult Times for IIMs

It is a difficult time for Indian Institute of managements (IIMs), to handle the chaos generated all over the country about CAT 2009 online exam. On the first 3 days of the exam window, many aspirants are not able to complete the test and for many the test did not even start. In most of the centers there were other problems related to the online test. Yesterday one more issue came into picture for Prometric, the American organization which is taking care of organizing the online exam. There has been a “virus attack” in the computers of nearly 4,000 students and they could not appear in the test during the first two days of the 10-day long staggered entrance that started on Saturday 28th november. There is a serious question posed by many educationists on the future of 241,000 students.

The Indian Government HRD ministry on Monday asked the convener of Common Admission Test (CAT) Satish Deodhar, to give a report for the ongoing disruption of the computer-based entrance test for admission into IIMs. The HRD ministry shot off a letter to Deodhar, asking him to submit a factual report. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad director Samir Barua also mentioned the problem of virus attack in various centers. Barua also asked the CAT aspirants to be calm and assured who have failed to take the test, that they would be able to give the test after it is rescheduled.

18% Aspirants Could not Appear

The failure of the online CAT test has bruised the brand IIM. With an estimated 18% of examinees unable to take the exam because of technical glitches, the IIMs came under fire in Parliament and outside for the massive bungle.

According to estimates by IIM-Ahmedabad which conducted the test, 8,297 of 45,367 candidates were displaced due to software viruses, technical glitches including hardware failures (servers, network switches) and power outages. The test was conducted in 104 test sites across 32 centres. In a report to the government, CAT convener Satish Deodhar assured that those who could not take the test would get another opportunity.

But neither the assurance nor the statement that the number of students who took the exams would go up when all details were in, could save the IIMs in Parliament where the issue figured in both Houses. CAT ko mouse kha gaya,” deputy leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said. Her remark attracted cries of “shame, shame” from the Opposition benches. On Monday, Bharat Raut of Shiv Sena had also demanded that facts be placed before the Rajya Sabha.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal was not harsh, but made plain the government’s unhappiness over the fiasco. He acknowledged that 18% was a large percentage and suggested that IIMs erred by not having a dry run. Steps should have been taken before to ensure that the examination does not face any technical glitches,” said the minister.

Sources in the government said: “IIMs never kept the ministry informed about the details of online test.

Significantly, in his report to the HRD ministry, Deodhar has neither regretted the failure nor revealed anything that is not already known. The report does not mention why no mock test was conducted to check the efficacy of the system.

In his one-page report sent to the ministry on Tuesday, Deodhar stood by the choice of Prometric, the company that conducted the online test, calling it a world leader in computerized test delivery.

The report said that on Saturday, there were 47 unplanned site outages, displacing 2,022 out of 15,650 candidates who took the online test. Also, 24 labs were repaired on Saturday.

On Sunday, there were 23 planned and 20 planned site outages, displacing 4,292 out of 18,808 candidates. Ten labs were repaired.

The figure for the number of candidates who took the online test on Monday will increase, said the report, since Prometric is in the process of retrieving test results from the site. As per Deodhar’s report, there were 33 planned and eight unplanned outages on Monday. So far, 1,983 out of 11,909 candidates have been displaced.

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