Prometric to address CAT glitches
Prometric to address CAT glitches
New Delhi: Promteric Testing Pvt. Ltd, which conducted the first online test for admission to the eight Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), said on Monday that the technical snags that marred the test were unacceptable and promised to put improved systems in place for the next edition.
Charles Kernan, chief operations officer of Prometric Inc., the US-based parent of Prometric Testing, said 13% of the network showed problems in the first three days of the Common Admission Test (CAT), which opened for a 10-day window in November-December last year.
“Eighty-seven per cent of the network ran from Day One perfectly fine. But the fact is that this is certainly not an acceptable standard for me, (and) I wouldn’t expect it to be an acceptable standard for anybody," Kernan said at a news conference in New Delhi.
CAT is a qualifying exam for the IIMs, among other business schools. Technical glitches and constant rescheduling forced the window for the first computer-based CAT to be extended to an 11th day in December. More than 215,000 candidates took the test, including around 4,500 who were retested in January because of the technical problems. Test preparation companies said Prometric test centres were ill-prepared to handle the load of test-takers.
Kernan said the company would work to secure computers in public institutions—private colleges which worked as CAT centres—for the next test but indicated that it was too early to move to a system of continuous testing or testing round-the-year.
“We have to sit down and talk with the IIMs how to spread the 10-day window," Kernan said.
aparna.k@livemint.com
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