The ‘Mock’ CAT!

Five days after the CAT was let out of the bag, the situation seems be going back to normal. The first few days of CAT, an entrance test conducted by the Indian Institute of Management which is being conducted at about 140 centres across India, were plagued with technical glitches. This left more than 8,000 students affected. The aspirants either couldn’t take the test successfully or were unable to do justice to it.

However, aspirants looked pretty much at peace at CAT centres across Mumbai on Wednesday. Sutapa Shome, an MBA aspirant who took the test on Wednesday said, “I faced no problems, it was smooth sailing.” It was the same for Benson Almeida, a mass media student who took the CAT for the first time. “It was my first time and I didn’t want to mess it up but I had no problems,” he shared happily.

Even though the technical glitches seem to have been sorted out, the interface issues remain. Navigation through the test paper is not very easy. The process of going from one question to the other is time consuming. Although there is a review button, most of the students don’t know how to use it. Sandhya Doke, a final year B.Com student admitted, “I wasted so much time in going from one question to the other. Time management went for a toss.” The other key problem with the interface is that the QUIT button which ends the test is placed right next to the NEXT button. Due to which several students who by mistake pressed the QUIT button instead of the NEXT button, quit the test prematurely.

With so many problems galore, the IIMs have a humungous task ahead. They have to decide onto whether extend the CAT online dates to accommodate the test takers affected by the mismanagement. They also will have to decide the future course of action for the aspirants who could complete the test but couldn’t do justice to it. These are the aspirants who couldn’t see a few questions in the test, who couldn’t see the graphs and diagrams which were essential to arrive at the answers, who by mistake pressed the QUIT button and also those who faced computer malfunctioning issues. ‘The CAT disaster’ is one case study which the management students at the IIMs will definitely take up in their classrooms!