Thousands appear for online CAT re-test

NEW DELHI - Thousands of MBA aspirants who faced difficulties in taking the online Common Admission Test (CAT) due to technical glitches last year appeared for the re-examination Saturday.

The second phase of the exam for admissions to the country’s top B-schools, was conducted at 42 centres across the nation, including 13 in Delhi and the national capital region.

There were 11,000 students identified across the country for the CAT re-test. Of which nearly 9,400 of them were expected to give the test Saturday and Sunday. However, the exact number of students that gave exam today is not confirmed as yet, said an official of the Prometric, the firm conducting the test.

The official said the rest of the students have opted to retain their earlier CAT score.

At least 241,000 MBA aspirants had registered to appear for the first ever online CAT spread over 11 days from Nov 28 last year. However, many thousands faced difficulties or could not appear for the exam due to technical glitches.

Ulhas Vairagkar of coaching institute TIME, said: “As per our estimates, nearly 80 percent of the 11,000-students gave the exam today (Saturday). The exam went off smoothly and till now we have not heard about any problems during the re-test.

The students who were not slotted to give the exam Saturday will attempt it Sunday, Vairagkar told IANS.

“As a result of the technical problems and students being unable to take the test, the date for the results has also been postponed. Earlier, the result was to be declared Jan 22, but now it will be out Feb 15,” Vairagkar added.

“Since the results will be delayed, the students will get less time to prepare for the group discussion and the interviews. But the admission process as such will remain unaffected,” he further said.