IIM B and C faculty has passed a resolution in support of conducting paper pencil test for this year and submitted it to the directors
the article is in TOI
Full article from Times of India Pune, 12 December edition : -
Two IIMs favour pen and paper format Somdatta Basu | TNN
Kolkata: Days after technical glitches threw the online CAT test out of gear at several centres across the country, two IIMS Calcutta and Bangalore have mooted a proposal to scrap the online exam and revert to a pen-and-paper test, at least for this year.
Fed up with reports of disrupted exams, teachers and visiting professors at the two premier B-schools have adopted resolutions in their respective faculty council meetings on this and forwarded copies to the directors of these two IIMs.
Time is a constraint and it wont be possible to conduct a smooth online test within a short period. We, thus, passed a resolution urging the directors and the CAT committee to arrange for a written examination at least for this year, said an IIM-C faculty council member. The member pointed out that in 2003, the IIMs had arranged for a second written test after the CAT papers were leaked in several cities.
Even as some IIMs brand this a panic reaction to a mere technical problem, faculty members of the two top IIMs feel the glitches have put CATs credibility at stake. Feedback from centres bear out that many students taking the online tests did not get a level playing field because of system errors. Even the sanctity of the exam was not maintained, said a faculty member from IIM-Bangalore. Written test is thus the only alternative for this year till the online test system is made error free, he added.
The issue will come up in the CAT committee meeting on December 13, where advisory committee members and exectives will sit with the directors of seven IIMs before they take a call.
According to IIM-Kozhikode director Debashish Chatterjee, the CAT committee has scanned the technical problems and categorised them. Chatterjee did not rule out the possibility of a retest which becomes aparent from the fact that a lot of students from Kolkata and elsewhere in the country have not been given a rescheduled date for taking the online CAT.