Anyone has any answers??

Candidate No: 59XXX Quant Score XX/150, DI Score XX/150, Verbal Score XX/150 Overall XX/450 Percentile: XX.XX

No need to tell you all what result Im talking about here. The CAT-2009 results declared yesterday have baffled each one of us I guess. For the people who got good scores it was a manifestation of their hard work mostly but even they must be thanking their stars after the drama (and derision) that the CAT exam has had this year. Congratulations to all of them. They deserve it. For the people who did not get good scores were still left wondering what went wrong. But was that the only question lingering in their minds after the results?? The answer is definitely a Big NO. Now whenever a test results are declared the ones who score good are quite happy with the scheme of events and the ones who don’t score good always find infinite reasons why didn’t they do well. Am I writing this article only because I didn’t score well- May be Yes because I expected to get a better percentile. But considering the result as only me screwing up on the test day isn’t the only excuse that I can think of. At this juncture a question that lurks in my mind is that if I try harder next year will I be assured that my hard work will pay off considering the fiasco that CAT 2009 has been through. I think that’s a very difficult question to answer not only for me but in general everyone. So what exactly went wrong in this year’s CAT exam? According to me following are the fronts where CAT failed miserably and the scenarios where IIMs are questionable.

1. Online CAT-2009: The IIMs opted for computerized CAT 2009 to enhance the quality of test including providing a more conducive environment for testing as compared to paper and pencil test. This is the statement released by IIMs on December 17^th. Now CAT had to go online at some point of time considering the fact that the number of people taking CAT has increased dramatically over the years. But conducting an online exam in this manner is not acceptable at all. CAT was conducted over a period of 10 days with candidates having absolutely no idea about the paper pattern at all. So the guys who took the test on the first day had utterly no clue about the paper pattern, the number of questions leave aside the marking scheme-that is not clear until now. Earlier the focus of CAT candidates was more on accuracy by attempting lesser selected questions while this year since the level of difficulty was less as compared to earlier years some of my friends attempted 57-58 questions out of 60. People who took the test on the first day had no clue about the level of difficulty at all and hence were very sceptical and choosy in attempting questios. In CAT 2008 the expected cutoff in quant was 30-32 out of 100 (verify: http://neeshu.com/Articles/cat-2008-question-paper-and-solutions-cat-2008-cut-off-marks.html)i.e. 32 % while this year inspite of getting almost 50%(score 71/150) in Quant my percentile was 86. This proves that people on the first few days had a very big disadvantage. According to this http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_cat-2009-results-baffle-candidates_1353677 score of a student depended on the day he took the test. The students who took the test the same day have scored similar marks. On the other hand, students of the same caliber who appeared on another date had scored very differently.

2. Mismanagement: If the non-uniformity was not conducive enough then there was another problem in the waiting- the disaster of server failure. I can only quote a prof JP Mishra from BITS, “But even the dumbest of people would verify the capacity of servers before using them. It would be surprising if the organisers did not even check the capacity of the servers to be used.” (Verify: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091201/jsp/frontpage/story_11806691.jsp Who is to be blamed for this debacle? Prometric-the agency responsible for conducting CAT 2009 (smoothly, I suppose) or the IIMs – for not hiring an agency capable enough of handling an exam of the magnitude of CAT. After hearing about all the drama I was just wondering if candidates were writing the test for getting into Indian Institute Of (Mis)management. Heights of frustration for everyone: Computer glitches continued to dog CAT-2009 even after results were declared. The results website shut down for three hours on Sunday afternoon, because of traffic overload.

3. Marking Scheme: CAT is supposed to be one of the toughest exams in the world and it is known for its surprise element in terms of varying paper patterns and marking scheme every year. They were able to maintain that surprise element this year also but the only problem this year was that they extended the surprise a bit longer this year. Even after the results people are guessing the marking scheme. Almost everyone predicted that the marking scheme is going to be (correct*3 +incorrect*(-1)) but IIMs surpassed everyone’s expectations and came up with a brilliant and novel marking scheme of evaluating out of 450. Now I tried to figure out the marking scheme in which I guessed (correct*7.5+incorrect*(-2.5)) but according to this some people should score in decimals as well. But atleast I have not heard anyone whose score is in decimals. So this scheme is also ruled out. Another marking scheme can be (10*10+5*10)/150(no idea about the negative marking scheme) since each section had 20 questions. If it’s correct then IIMs have made a complete mess of it. CAT is all about taking calculated risks and selecting the proper set of questions to answer. Even if each question had a different weightage why weren’t the students informed of this very important factor prior to the test.

4. Second Note on the CAT score card: The scores reported are the scaled scores arrived at by establishing psychometric equivalences to adjust for any variation in difficulty levels across the tests. WTH is a psychometric evaluation?? Im sure many of the candidates have heard of this term for the first time in their life. I googled for this term and tried to interpret the theory though its very difficult and complex to interpret. The first basic question in a psychometric evaluation is , ”Does the instrument measure the same construct across groups?” to test whether the instrument is an equally valid measure of targeted construct in each population group- in this case candidate’ marks. The second question arises can the item/scale scores be directly and meaningfully compared across population groups? Its a very big question of debate and controversy. Pyscometric analysis stands when software put question from the earlier stabilized question bank, and adjust according to your intellect. Candidates appeared for the tests in totally different (according to IIMs conducive) environments. Some people who took re-test had an added advantage. They knew the paper pattern, the type of questions, and the level of difficulty. These (special) candidates had one whole month to prepare for the test. Was this factor taken into consideration while doing this psychometric evaluation?? All these questions are still unanswered.

5. The GUI Interface: We all criticise Microsoft for all the popup messages and warnings that arise when we perform various file operations. However, I think no one would have criticised Prometric if they would have provided a confirmation message popup while ending the test. Some people’s tests ended before scheduled time just because they clicked on the end button unknowingly. Even the End Review Button ended the tests-Heights of carelessness by Prometric !! Some people even complained that the sample GUI Interface was different than the actual test interface though Im not sure about this.

Now the ultimate question that arises is- Is IIM going to answer all the questions? IIMs are known for their humility and accepting any mistakes on thei r behalf. Though IIMs are government entities I always considered IIMs as an exception to the normal government organisations and the babugiri. But after this year’s fiasco I think all they care about is just whether the seats are filled or not, thoughtless of the fact whether they are able to get the best brains and most worthy people in the country. Shouldn’t the CAT system be more transparent given the fact that it’s online now and candidates are definitely tested under different conditions? CAT is not GRE where your score may be 1400 or 1600- you have a good chance of getting into Stanford or any other good university provided you have a good trackrecord. Inspite of having good academic and extracurricular records when performing exceptional in CAT is absolutely essential then all these factors should be seriously considered. Considering the bigger picture, none of the IIMs are in the top 100 rankings of the world. If IIMs have a vision of getting into the top 100 Bschools then no matter how hard they try I doubt if they can even challenge for the top 100 bschools. I thought one aspect of management also teaches you to satisfy and take care of your client and customer in the best possible manner. Extending this analogy to CAT I think IIMs-the managers have utterly failed in the objective to satisfy their clients-the candidates. People dream and aspire of getting into IIMs; some are even obssessed but after all this drama I guess IIMs have made themselves more repulsive. On a funnier note I guess people will prefer soul searching and go to Himalayas rather than getting into the Mohmaya of MBA and the prestigious IIMs!