Come 2012, aspirants can take online CAT any time of the year

With the Common Admission Test exceeding expectations this year, the organisers are confident about conducting the exams throughout the year by 2012.

On Wednesday, the 20-day window period for the online tests for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) came to an end. IIM authorities, who were ridiculed last year for mismanaging the tests in its maiden online innings, have managed to meet global standards this time, and in some parameters, have even exceeded expectations.

Himanshu Rai, the convenor of CAT-2010, said, “Linear-on-the-fly testing method, as it is called, will be possible only by 2012. We need to have enough psychometrically tested questions to conduct exams at any time of the year. These questions will be ready by 2012, after which we can conduct exams several times in a year.”

Explaining this year’s success, Rai said, “The specifications in global practices have been met this year and we have also exceeded them in some parameters. The technical specifications, numbers of acceptable failures, our services, the IVRS system, and response time to students’ problems, have exceeded global standards. We delivered what we had promised last year.”

With increasing numbers of institutes abroad seeking CAT scores for admissions, IIMs have decided to go offshore from next year to increase their brand value. Rai said, “Several institutes in the Middle-East and South East Asia are showing interest in using CAT scores for admissions to their institutes. This year, 160 institutes in the country will be accepting CAT scores, which is a big boost for us.”

Around 2.4 lakh students appeared for CAT this year. Apart from the minor hiccups in the beginning, CAT-2010, which was conducted over a month, was a success.  “The numbers of aspirants fell a little. However, if the IIMs start the linear-on-the-fly testing, the numbers are bound to increase in the future,” said a CAT expert.

The second half of the last day was deliberately kept free for technical snags. However, none were reported, said Rai.

Officials from Prometric, which has designed the test, and the IIMs will analyse the data collected over the month in the next few days.