CAT 2009 extended by a day till December 8

KOLKATA | NEW DELHI: The Common Admission Test 2009 has been extended by a day till December 8. But, problems continue to plague candidates even now in matters of rescheduling of originally postponed exams. While some students have been assigned outstation centres at short notices, others have been allotted more than one rescheduled date!

There are also candidates, whose exams got postponed in the early slots but have not yet received intimation about new dates. Even some of the differently-abled candidates have not been spared, with rescheduled dates
being assigned to them at inconveniently-located centres.

CAT 2009 was originally scheduled to run for 10 days from November 28 to December 7, 2009. “We are working with the IIMs to add an additional session on Day 11 to accommodate them within the city they were originally scheduled,” said Mr Ramesh Nava, vice-president & general manager, Asia Pacific, Japan & Africa, Prometric in a release.

According to him, in response to feedback from candidates, Prometric has extended the hours for the CAT Candidate Care (1800-103-9293), added more telephone lines and Candidate Care agents to accommodate the high volume of calls.

Prometric’s assurances notwithstanding, problems still persists. And, these arrangements don’t seem to be doing enough to allay the fears of those CAT candidates, who are facing rescheduling problems.

Take Bhopal resident and CAT first-timer Ashish Jain, who is afraid that he’s not going to be able to sit for the CAT at all. “I booked the November 29th test, first slot which got postponed. I was told that I would be informed about the new date in 48 hours but there was no communication from Prometric. It was only after I called the helpline that I received a call as late as Friday afternoon that my test has been rescheduled to Lucknow on the 7th. My college exams are on the 8th, how can I make it to Lucknow,” he rues. “And I’m just not being able to get through to the helpline.”

Jay Kumar, a CAT aspirant from Bhopal is another sufferer. His test was re-scheduled in Guwahati, from Bhopal, the earlier location. Since Jay got the message at midnight, it was impossible for him to take the exam thousands of kms away, in a different state. Luckily, this 20-year-old engineering student spoke with Prometric and found a vacant seat in one of the institutes in Bhopal itself. “They (Prometric) should understand that it’s nearly impossible for someone to reach from one state to another over a short notice of few hours. There were no trains readily available and everybody can not travel by air. It’s not a feasible option,” he says.

Twenty-year-old Avantika had to go through the nightmare of a re-scheduled exam in a different city. Avantika was supposed to sit for the exam on December 2 at Okhla (Delhi). But the test was cancelled due to technical problems and her exam was re-scheduled on December 4 at Ghaziabad. Avantika is a differently-abled candidate and had to go through the agony of visiting an unfamiliar location, far off from her place. “When Prometric sent me the message that my test will be held at Hi-Tech Institute, they did not even mention the location (city). We had to figure it out ourselves. Moreover, I was scared to visit an unfamiliar place and had to take help of my family and friends for the same,” she says.

Meanwhile, Rupesh Kumar’s exam has been re-scheduled on December 6, which coincides with his MAT exam as well. The 20-year-old engineering student is now completely hassled, trying frantically to get through the “permanently-busy” helplines. “If I am left with no choice, I will appear for CAT alone. The time and money that I have invested in MAT will prove futile,” he said.

Meanwhile, in response to an email query by ET, Prometric’s Nava said : “We will allocate the best available slot to affected candidates and it is possible this could be as early as the next day. Candidates are advised to stay in contact over phone and email at all times. Candidate Care is currently only rescheduling candidates that are impacted on the same day or the following day.”

However, as loads of rescheduling-related problems continued to surface, it seemed that the worst fears of this year’s CAT candidates had come to pass. “It’s bad enough that my test has been rescheduled. Now I’m wondering if the answers I mark are recorded properly. There’s no way I’ll find out if anything goes wrong with the results,” said another candidate who is still waiting for her new exam date to be allotted.