The euphoria of CAT 2013 results has vanished – a sense of despondence has taken over a sizeable number of candidates. About 3,000 candidates are crying foul over their marks. And as I write this article, some are even planning to go to court to to stop the admission processes from commencing in the institutes accepting CAT scores?
Whether the current movement is just a heady reaction or it will materialise into something as radical as XLRI’s large-hearted re-evaluation is to be seen. For now, let’s see the issue from the other side.
PaGaLGuY spoke to IIM officials for a better understanding and their responses were far from agitated.
Most officials said that the decision to court over the results is an annual affair and very rarely does it go beyond the ‘decision’ stage. Candidates often feel they have been unfairly evaluated in CAT.
About the students’ main grouse on disparity between the Sections, officials say that every year such scores are recorded. “Some test takers are stronger in one Section and poor in the other and this will reflect in the exam,” said one official. When reminded that the disparity, as claimed by the candidates was not visible during the mock exams, the official answered that not always do people fare according to the mocks.
Another IIM person connected to the exams however said that if such scores are seen in large numbers, yes, may be one would think about it.
When asked to explain how one candidate scored a 55 percentile when he claims to have not attempted a single question, officials answered that given the marking system of the CAT exam, the scenario is quite a possibility. Which means that those who have answered even 1 right answer have got a percentile over 55. And those who scored under 55 percentile possible suffered due to negative marking.
One correct answer is worth three marks while one incorrect one means one mark less in CAT. Unlike GMAT, CAT does not have a requirement of answering a specific number of questions. “People take CAT to enter a b-school in India so why have a system of making them answer a minimum set of questions. By not answering a single question, the person has wasted time and energy and possibly robbed another candidate of his seat,” asserted an IIM person.
In this article, we have attached the scores of a few lamenting candidates. If you look closely, not all seem genuine concerns but the numbers are large enough for a re-think.
The fact that re-evaluation is not allowed in CAT makes the exercise for the protesting candidates more difficult. They have to either taken legal help or file an RTI, the response to the latter may come in too late. Social media has made it possible for every issue to reach larger than life proportions – whether the end will match is what needs to be seen.