“MOUSE ATTACKED CAT

THIS YEAR”
BY AR
CAT 09 MANAGEMENT
FAILURE OR VIRUS
ATTACK
SOME FACTS
 NO OF APPLICANTS: 2.41
LAKH
 NO OF STUDENTS
APPEARED :2.16 LK
 TEST FORMAT: ONLINE
 COST: Rs 1400
 NO OF QUESTIONS: 60
 TEST WINDOW:10
CONSECUTIVE DAYS
 TEST CENTRES: 361
 RESCHEDUELED on 31th
JAN’2010.
CAT GOING ONLINE
 The main reason for cat going online was to
globalize the exam just as GMAT
 IIMs gave contract to prometric to conduct the
exam
 Prometric gave the assurance to conduct the
exam in minimum no of dayz(10 Days)
 $40mn contract was signed.
CONTD…….
 Four companies were
shortlisted they were:
 1: ETS prometric
 2: Pearson VUE
 3: Eduquity career
technologies
 4: Attes
FAILURE OR SUCCESS???????
 TOI reports that as many as 49 centers across 24
centers across India could not conduct the test
because of the virus.
 Bangalore was the city to suffer the most because of
the disaster with about 12 labs not being able to
conduct the CAT on the second day.
 ``Please do NOT go to the testing centre on
November 29. We will contact you in 48 hours.'‘
Students got such SMS and emails on very short
notice.
CONTD……..
 8000 students faced difficulty in completing
the test.
 The various problems faced by these
candidates have been categorized based on
the emails and calls received by the
Candidate Care Centre of Prometric.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE????????
 ``Exhaustive plans were developed and put in
place well in advance of the start of the
testing window. Unfortunately, particular
viruses and malware that attacked the test
delivery system were not detected by the anti-
virus software at the testing centres,'‘

Ramesh Nava (Vice president of prometric)

 Contd….

• The big question is, since the test is being

conducted through local servers; how did the
virus propagate to all the centers across India?

• Prometric are the one who are conducting

GRE / GMAT / Linux / HP certifications since long
time.

• But May be they haven't experienced so much

load on their servers.
PROMETRIC’S DEFENCE

 It was a virus effect

 Prolific and W32 Nimda virus
Student’S View
 The invigilation is not that good, the systems
were not proper.
 Lot of questions were repeated questions..!
 Some of the systems got restarted in the
middle of the exam..! So, Extra time given to
them.
 The students were not able to concentrate on
their exams due to disturbance in the hall and
crashing of systems.
CONTD…
 Questions got leaked
through social network
sites like orkut and
coaching centres
 Some cheating cases
were also there
 Varying difficulty levels
 Some students
deliberately restarted
their systems
 Students cant predict there results
 Coaching institutes cant provide analysis
 Selection of colleges becomes difficultng
 Reappear Students might face problems in
adjusting with new dates
Problems faced
 End button problem
 Questions (Figures and Diagrams) not
appearing properly
 Many students whose slots had been
rescheduled due to system failure or other
reasons haven’t been able to give the test
even after 3-4 days.
 Wastage of time
 Chaos created due to message.
WHAT IIMS SAID
 96% Students gave
exam successfully
 Rest are to appear
soon
ADVANTAGES OF GOING
ONLINE
 Globalizing the exam
 Reduce paper work
 Quick results
 Error free
 Avoidance of Leaking of the paper
Disadvantages Of Online Test
 Indian Education still dependent on written
works
 Students from rural areas are not adaptive
these changes
 Problem solving was comparatively much
easier on paper based exams.
 Availability of better infrastructure is needed
for online tests.
 Crashing of server.
 Heavy rush on holidays
Comparison With GMAT
 GMAT is of Computer Adaptive type as
compared to Computer Based test format.
 Score is valid for 5 years(2 years in some
colleges) as compared to 3-4 months for
CAT.
 Have 430 centers across 94 countries as
compared to 361 across India for CAT.
 Only 20,000 applicants applied for GMAT as
compared to 2.76 lakh in 2008 in INDIA.
ARE IIMS ALSO
RESPONSIBLE???????????
WHAT IIMS COULD HAVE DONE
 IIM could have followed the path of other
Indian Universities (for Example Gujarat &
Manipal) which have developed and deployed
much larger testing systems, in house, at a
fraction of the payment doled out to
Prometric.
 They should have done a mock test before
operating.
 IIM Paid 40M US$ to Prometric for the simple
testing platform.
“MOUSE MAY HAVE WON THIS YEAR BUT
CAT WILL DEFINITELY BOUNCE BACK
STRONGLY”
again by AR