The CATastrophy Saga – When The Online CAT Failed To Purr!
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Well, the news is out. CAT is a failure in its online avatar! You might have read reports from various news sources such as NDTV, Hindu Business Line, Times of India, just to name a few, about the series of happenings all around the cities in India. The most frustrating part of the story is that no-one is willing to take the blame and just playing passing the buck. Well, all I can say is that India is still a long way away when it comes to technology enablement of traditional processes.
So, Why did the CAT servers Fail? This, I guess should be the one thing which needs proper research and analysis. Times, I hope, will let us know the real story, but on prima facie, the common logic that can be arrived to is India’s IT Infrastructure is not able to handle the load during online exams.
Giving you all a brief background about the CAT re-invented this year; CAT, i.e. Common Admission Test was supposed to go online for the first time and was to be held during Nov 28th – December 7th, and Prometric won the contract (valued at ~$40mn deal) partnering with NIIT for the operational support. Since CAT is being held over a period of 10 days for the first time in it’s history, IIMs have put a disclaimer on their site warning that anybody who attempts to leak the question will face 3 years of jail (or fine of Rs. 2 lakhs) which reads as – “Disclosing, publishing, reproducing, transmitting, storing, or facilitating transmission and storage of the contents of the CAT or any information therein in whole or part thereof in any form or by any means, verbal or written, electronically or mechanically for any purpose, shall be in violation of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and/or the Copyright Act, 1957 and/or the Information Technology Act“.
One was expecting this to be a success as it would set a precedent for other such tests and even education it India to look at online exams as a route. But the failure of the Online CAT is not only bad for IIM’s and CAT aspirants but is sad for digital enthusiasts nd digital startups as well as it would deter others looking to go this route next time around and thereby stop digital business that may have got created in this space. All we can say is we hope there is better preparation next time around.
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BITSAT, the online test of BITS, Pilani is a success story of online tests in India. This year 120,000 students took the test and not a singlr student went back without taking the test!
Why can’t the IIMs seek technical assistance from BITS-Pilani. India’s premier technology institute has been super successful in pioneering online tests and without any major glitches. BITS catered 123,000 applicants this year, at 19 centres across the country, for a period of 1 month. The inability of premier institutes of the caliber of IIMs make myself feel proud at myself being called a BITSian. HAIL BITS!
While the move to go online might seem obvious and prophetic even, there are mass inefficiencies with such a process and these should be dealt with before any plans for grandeur.
“geographical reach..” – Can you ensure equality in terms of bandwidth and network connectivity PAN India, let alone system compatibility., etc? If nothing else, this is a disadvantage to rural students who take up the exams in remote areas.
“reduces human error..” – Where multiple sets are involved, the system is inherently flawed. it is IMPOSSIBLE to ensure consistency in the level of difficulty of all question paper sets without compromise.
- all this management gyaan, and they could not even find themselves a decent vendor. The kind of statements being issued by Ramesh Nava, or whoever at Prometric, eschews gross negligence. Lucky for them they will get away, unlike any Indian company.
There is more to follow..
i work in the Evaluation Team @ eLitmus and we shifted to pen and paper a couple of years back. Thanks to IIM’s for helping us substantiate our argument with a case study. Like with evaluation, CAT will follow us with a lag!
While the move to go online might seem obvious and prophetic even, there are mass inefficiencies with such a process and these should be dealt with before any plans for grandeur.
“geographical reach..” – Can you ensure equality in terms of bandwidth and network connectivity PAN India, let alone system compatibility., etc? If nothing else, this is a disadvantage to rural students who take up the exams in remote areas.
“reduces human error..” – Where multiple sets are involved, the system is inherently flawed. it is IMPOSSIBLE to ensure consistency in the level of difficulty of all question paper sets without compromise.
- all this management gyaan, and they could not even get themselves a decent vendor. The kind of statements being issued by Ramesh Nava, or whoever at Prometric, eschews gross negligence. Lucky for them they will get away, unlike any Indian company.
There is more to follow..
i work in the Evaluation Team @ eLitmus and we shifted to pen and paper a couple of years back. Thanks to IIM’s for helping us substantiate our argument with a case study. Like with evaluation, CAT will follow us with a lag!
Whenever you see colour think of Jenson & Nicholson was a catch line for a paint major advt. Whenever you see online Exam, think of BITSAT of BITS Pilani is the catch line of the hour. Birla Institute of Technology and Science popularly known as BITS Pilani is a Leader in education who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Its time for media to wakeup and write about the success of BITSAT online exam than writing about why CAT online derailed.
Rightly said Yash: IIMs make myself feel proud at myself being called a BITSian.