The Hindu Business Line : CAT to go online from this year

Snapshot
The test will be conducted in a window of about ten days sometime at the end of the calendar year.
This step will make CAT comparable to the existing international tests such as GMAT, GRE, and TOEFL.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 30 It is time to bell the CAT — and it can be done online!

After conducting one of the toughest exams in a paper-and-pencil format for past 33 years, the Common Admission Tests is going to be a computer-based test this year onwards.

Clearing the air over the long pending notification on the computerisation of CAT, IIM-Bangalore, in an official notification released, has said CAT will go online.

“The test will be conducted in a window of about ten days sometime at the end of the calendar year.

“IIMs have been thinking of moving to an online format. The step is a direction towards it.

“This has been done to ensure smooth conduct of the exam,” Prof Amarnath Krishnaswamy, IIM-Bangalore spokesperson, said.

This step will make CAT comparable to the existing international tests such as GMAT, GRE, and TOEFL.

The IIMs have selected prometric ETS, a US-based company that handles global exams such as the GRE and TOEFL, to be their partner in delivering the computer-assisted CAT.

Speaking on the development, Mr R. Shiva Kumar, Director (R&D and Academics), Career Launcher said, “The new format will impact all aspects of student preparation and they will need to put in a lot of effort.

Career Launcher has already changed the curriculum and has invested heavily on necessary resources in all our centres.”

The IIMs claim that the CAT will be a candidate-friendly test in terms of flexibility in the selection of test date, ease of registration process, better physical environment and test experience, and enhanced security in terms of biometric identification of candidates and video monitoring.

CAT format also would also improve communication between candidates and IIMs in terms of programme information, test delivery, receipt of admit cards, and receipt of score reports.

While about 95,000 candidates took CAT in 2003, the number rose to about 250,000 in 2008 indicating a rise of a whopping 163 percent. This has resulted in severe strain on the administrative system of IIMs to conduct CAT in its existing format.

The IIMs will make further details available on the computerised CAT format along with the notification for CAT 2009 to be released later this summer.

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