In a brief statement issued after the completion of CAT 2016 examination, CAT Convenor, Prof Rajendra K Bandi stated that the test was conducted smoothly across centres in 138 cities in the country. But, was it truly conducted without any discrepancies? Let’s find out by asking a few candidates.
CAT 2016 candidate, Saurabh Sangwan, had his exam centre in Mahaveer Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sonepat, Haryana. “Contrary to what the CAT guidelines stated, everyone was asked to remove their footwear ouside the exam hall, irrespective of whether it was open footwear or not. I believe it was extremely unfair and have already written a mail to the CAT helpdesk about it but unfortunately haven’t received a reply yet. I even caught cold by the end of the exam due to the cold floor,” he said.
Another candidate, and PaGaLGuY user, Akanksha Sabharwal who took the exam at Nagpur’s Institute of Technology had a similar incident to share. “Many were not able to concentrate because of the cold floor and neither was there a wooden slab under the desk for us to keep our bare feet on. It was terrible. This was my first attempt and I can say that such things definitely hamper the efficiency,” she said. Akanksha further added that one of her friends faced a technical problem but there was no invigilator present to address the issue. “She wasted 5-7 mins due to this and she was not able to click on any question or move over to the next question,” she exclaimed.
PaGaLGuY member, @youyou complained of another serious issue that was a gross negligence on the part of the invigilators of his respective centre. “Some students started their paper at 9am and some at 9 30am in my centre. There were about 500-600 students in one single room and when I had 20 minutes left in Quant, those who had completed their paper, talked their way out of the hall, making it extremely difficult for us to concentrate,” @youyou said.
AP Joshua, another aggrieved MBA candidate invested a significant amount of time, money and hard work to prepare for the CAT 2016 exam. “To my utter disappointment, the test experience was very distressing. The test was replete with ambiguous questions. What’s even more annoying is the high-handedness of IIM-B. The B-school is just not ready to acknowledge that it has clearly bungled up. My 10 generations will not write CAT after this misadventure,” he said with frustration.
Well, here’s hoping that the CAT Convenor wakes up to see reality for what it is and takes some initiative in addressing these grievances.
*The responses of the candidates are taken from users of the PaGaLGuY website.