Online CAT puts Prometric in mousetrap

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Indian unit of Prometric, the world’s leading testing company, is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The glitches in the ongoing Common Admission Test (CAT), is something that any firm would not like to have as it not only affects the confidence of the aspirants but also the credibility of the organizers.

On the first two days of the CAT, many candidates could not appear for the exam as the server crashed in many places.

Taking responsibility of the unwelcome development, Prometric said exhaustive plans were developed and put in place well in advance of the start of the testing window.

“Unfortunately, the particular viruses and malware that attacked the test delivery system were not detected by the anti-virus software at the testing centres. Candidates are our first and foremost priority and Prometric is making every effort to provide all CAT aspirants an opportunity to test,” said an executive.

“We understand how stressful it is for candidates to adapt to this new computer-based format,” said Soumitra Roy, managing director, India, Prometric. “We truly regret the additional stress that candidates were subjected to over the first weekend of the CAT 2009, and are doing everything we can to make the rest of the testing experience as smooth as possible.”

However,  Prometric has not given a clear answer as to what went wrong.

This was for the first time that CAT organizers decided to conduct a computer-based entrance examination, using a distributed testing system, in technical parlance. In such an entrance system  the chances of servers crashing are negligible, feel experts.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the hiccups faced by thousands of students on day one of the Common Admission Test (CAT), an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) director said the online examination is a “democratizing process” and “all the problems will be sorted out quickly”.

"CAT on computer is a democratizing process and aims at benefiting students in a large way. We have heard about the server problem but it won't be a prolonged one," an IANS report quoted Debashis Chatterjee, director of IIM Kozhikode, as saying.

"Online tests are not time and space bound. Hence, students who faced a problem on the first day will be accommodated within next few days," he said, asking students not to panic or worry.

The highly competitive Common Admission Test (CAT), which went online for the first time this year, was hit by technical problems and poor management, affecting students in many centres.

The test will continue till next Monday at 105 centres in 32 cities across the country. Students can appear in the test at these centres during the 10-day examination period. There are nearly 1,800 seats in the seven IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong.

Around 240,000 students have registered for the CAT this year, which is scheduled at 105 centres in 32 cities, all linked to a main server.

Some experts had said there are fewer aspirants this year because they are unsure of the outcome of a computer-based test.

A few weeks back, the online examination conducted by IGNOU had also collapsed and it had sought explanation from the service provider Yahoo!, as to what went wrong leading to the crash.

With inputs from IANS.