Why CAT 2009 Should be scrapped

So there were lot of complaints about Prometric and how they failed to conduct the exams properly and how many students faced problems like -

1. Systems not working and Virus attacks (seriously, virus attack?)
2. Questions and pattern getting repeated giving unfair advantage to others, specially in colleges where students can discuss the papers.
3. some people getting extra time to solve the problems due to reboots of systems.
4. Students still haven’t got any rescheduled dates and times.

Why CAT 2009 Should be scrapped

I feels CAT 2009 should be scrapped and this has nothing to do with me being sympathetic to the students (though I always be as I always felt in India, atleast 3 deserving candidates fight for 1 seat in almost all exams) but due to the fact that a mistake was made. There is nothing wrong in admitting that things went wrong which can happen with anyone and anywhere. Relying fully on computer hardware and probably not doing due diligence was a mistake from IIMs but may be due to ego problems and due to prestige on stake, they are taking time to admit it and ofcourse there is no going back once you admit that things went wrong.

Now IIMs are saying that very few people (say 500, I don’t know the exact numbers) are affected by these problems out of 2 lakh but then this is not a small number, not to mention the other problems of questions getting repeated and students discussing during exam or few getting more time than others.

I don’t think people can share the answers in quick discussion (they probably must have discussed “what the hell is going on”) and I don’t think some 70 percentile guy will score 99 percentile because he got few more minutes, and I also feels there is more smoke and noise than what actually is but still there has been problem and IIM need to make sure they correct it, as CAT is about Students, not about IIMs, also I don’t think anyone specially IIM wants to hear “2009 CAT exam was a joke” for the next 10 years.

You can not correct a mistake by just ignoring it (something which Indians has mastered) as that is another mistake. Failures always has a price, and someone has to pay it, but lets not make students pay for it specially if the mistake is from IIM and Prometrics Side.

If students feels they are cheated, they should go to court, and I am glad few are already doing this (as read from a CAT forum)

I wonders how relevant this Video is now …

December 3rd, 2009 in Life
  • Shruti

    respected sir,
    I am one of the affected students. I read ur blog. sir i wud like to tell u that i took the paper on 1st dec. I consider myself a 90+% category student. Sir my exam started late by 30 mins. Is this not a mental torture to me where everyone else in my lab is taking the test without any problem? then finally it started but i could not open my VA section in which i was more comfortable than DI. But i had t spend more time doing DI and QA but the prometric guy said u r running short of time so don’t waste ur time. we can’t help u.later on finally the VA section was opened when my computer was changed but i was given only the time that was left on the computer screen.And as u have said that a 70% candidate cannot become a 90% one but what about al those who fall in 90%+ category. i have many friends who knew atleast 5 questions in advance from earlier CAT papers and they just took 10 secs to mark the answers . Is this not unfair?A single minute and a single question in cat can change ur result and ur life.?so things like cheating and getting extra do affects many others becoz cat is not about %age its about %tile.And why do we forget that its not about only IIMS its about admission to many other colleges which take CAT score.If this CAT paper is not scrapped it will affect our admission to many other premier institutes.i will loose my faith into iims and indian education system if entry to premier institutes like iims is based upon such a test”like CAT 2009″.And what about their further joke of a surprise marking scheme.When the test lacks unformity in every sense then their surprise package of marking scheme cannot add solace or fairness .Infact this is even a bigger torture to us.Some one please tell them that they Academicians not butchers. Their differential marking will be like”jale pe namak chidakna”. When this is not diaclosed earlier so how will anyone know how to attempt a paper like cat. Atleast we must know that there will be a defferential marking scheme so that we can take a decision of some questions to pick and some not to. Apni image bachane ke liye ab yeah log hamare saath aur khilwade karna chahte hain.Plz stop them

  • Pushkar Gaikwad

    Hi Shruti, sorry to hear what happened with you and IIMs not deciding to scrap the exam is unfortunate, if you feels you have strong case, you can always go with legal option. Good Luck

  • ANKUR

    HI SHRUTI !!!!!!!
    I ALSO FEEL THIS YEARS CAT IS NOT A FAIR EXAM AT ALL.THIS YEAR CAT SCORES ARE NOT GOING TO JUDGE ONE’S ABILITIES TRULY…..
    HOW IT CAN BE??WHEN STUDENTS ALREADY KNEW THE QUESTIONS AND SOME ARE GIVEN SECOND CHANCE.THEY WILL SUERLY PERFORM WELL IN SECOND ATTEMPT.FOR THOSE WHO REALLY FACED PROBLEM ITS OK LIKE YOU.BUT THERE ARE OTHERS ALSO WHO ARE GIVEN SECOND CHANCE..