Now, bell the CAT online but how?
Belling the CAT has never been easy. It’s bound to be tougher especially when it’s going to be online.
NEW DELHI: Belling the CAT has never been easy. It���s bound to be tougher especially when it���s going to be online. That���s what coaching institutes and preparatory firms are discovering. As the Common Admission Test (CAT) for IIMs goes online in 2009, firms such as Career Launcher, Time and Applect Learning Solutions are groping in the dark since the format of online CAT is still unclear. Also, almost all are grappling with the challenge of getting the right infrastructure in place.
As the first move, most coaching and MBA preparatory firms are beefing up their infrastructure to meet the requirements when CAT does go online next year. If a computer-based test is conducted, where students take the test over a period of time with a standardised set of questions with the same difficulty level, it would be a challenge for coaching institutes to prepare a huge databank of questions. However , most coaching firms want to be at least ready with needed infrastructure and address the issue of how later, when the contours of online CAT are clear.
While Career Launcher plans to invest Rs 2.7 crore on buying or leasing a computer in 90 different locations, Time is mooting tieups with IT education companies like NIIT and Aptech. Similarly, APPLECT Learning Solutions has already started investing to create a huge databank of questions to give students a feel of the real test in 2009. Coaching firms apart, the changed CAT spells new opportunity for several players who may offer crash courses in basic computing, specially in small towns, say experts.
The reason for such a change lies in the burgeoning numbers of CAT applicants. The numbers of IIM aspirants has surged from 90,000 to 2.3 lakh during the last four years. It was around 35,000 just a decade back. The ensuing complexities and the operational hassles of conducting the CAT across multiple centres for such a large audience has forced the IIMs to look at the alternative routes for testing.
���Internationally, it���s a common practice and CAT is moving towards GMAT format,��� says CL AVP Saugata Ghosh. ���We need to make students familiar with the new format, provide them the basic infrastructure in every possible way.��� However, all this will come at a price. Preparing a huge databank of questions would require a lot of effort too. ���The test is going to take place in a time range, that is, spread over a few days maybe months,��� says Applect Learning Systems MD Pavan Chauhan.
���This will put a lot of pressure on the test designers to create a large data bank, which has to be statistically valid and standard . The pressure on us is to work on the CAT data bank which has to be valid.���
BACK TO BASICS
As the first move, most coaching and MBA preparatory firms are beefing up their infrastructure to meet the requirements when CAT does go online next year. If a computer-based test is conducted, where students take the test over a period of time with a standardised set of questions with the same difficulty level, it would be a challenge for coaching institutes to prepare a huge databank of questions. However , most coaching firms want to be at least ready with needed infrastructure and address the issue of how later, when the contours of online CAT are clear.
While Career Launcher plans to invest Rs 2.7 crore on buying or leasing a computer in 90 different locations, Time is mooting tieups with IT education companies like NIIT and Aptech. Similarly, APPLECT Learning Solutions has already started investing to create a huge databank of questions to give students a feel of the real test in 2009. Coaching firms apart, the changed CAT spells new opportunity for several players who may offer crash courses in basic computing, specially in small towns, say experts.
The reason for such a change lies in the burgeoning numbers of CAT applicants. The numbers of IIM aspirants has surged from 90,000 to 2.3 lakh during the last four years. It was around 35,000 just a decade back. The ensuing complexities and the operational hassles of conducting the CAT across multiple centres for such a large audience has forced the IIMs to look at the alternative routes for testing.
���Internationally, it���s a common practice and CAT is moving towards GMAT format,��� says CL AVP Saugata Ghosh. ���We need to make students familiar with the new format, provide them the basic infrastructure in every possible way.��� However, all this will come at a price. Preparing a huge databank of questions would require a lot of effort too. ���The test is going to take place in a time range, that is, spread over a few days maybe months,��� says Applect Learning Systems MD Pavan Chauhan.
���This will put a lot of pressure on the test designers to create a large data bank, which has to be statistically valid and standard . The pressure on us is to work on the CAT data bank which has to be valid.���
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BACK TO BASICS
��� Coaching institutes are now struggling to get computers and other infrastructure in place
��� Institutes are also investing on preparing a huge databank of questions with the same difficulty levels
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