IIM-SECOND CHANCE

Thursday, October 1, 2009
SECOND CHANCE FOR IIM HOPEFULS
Second chance for IIM hopefuls

- Computerised CAT allows applicants to correct entry forms
Online bonus

New Delhi, Sept. 30: IIM aspirants who submitted incorrect application forms have got another chance — a side benefit of computerising the entrance process.
The Indian Institutes of Management have for the first time been able to “salvage the dreams” of thousands as the computerisation of the Common Aptitude Test has allowed students to correct forms that would earlier have been rejected because of errors, officials said.
“Till now, we had to place a granite stone on our hearts and reject erroneous applications. For the first time this year, we have been able to salvage the dreams of thousands of aspirants,” IIM Ahmedabad professor Satish Deodhar, in charge of the computerised CAT, told The Telegraph.
Last year, the premier B-schools had to reject close to 10,000 applications because of errors in the forms and the absence of a corrective mechanism.
The manual nature of the application process till now meant that officials had to physically scrutinise each form, sieving out the erroneous ones.
“This took a lot of time leaving no opportunity to contact each concerned applicant and ask him or her to correct the form,” Deodhar explained.
This year too, applicants initially faced problems adjusting to the online registration process, and several had complained to the IIMs.
The online form, for instance, provided three fields to fill the address, including one where the applicant is required to select his state or Union territory.
But some students, Deodhar said, filled their entire address in the first field. The form was programmed to place Andaman and Nicobar — the first on the alphabetical list — in the state tab by default if the applicant left this field vacant.
The IIMs realised the problem after receiving complaints from across the country that they had been wrongly registered as Andaman residents.
They then revised the online form together with Prometric, a private company that is managing the examination for the IIMs, to include an option enabling applicants to edit forms they had earlier submitted.
On registering, students receive an SMS informing them that their application has been accepted. If a student does not receive the SMS, he can check his form online for errors.
The IIMs had earlier planned to end sale of application forms for this year’s CAT on October 1. They have now decided to extend the deadline by a week till October 8. The last date for online registration has been extended from October 1 to October 11
The CAT — computerised for the first time this year — will be held over a 10-day window from November 28 to December 7. Students can take the test in one of two shifts — morning or evening — on any of these days.
The IIMs have also introduced a set of measures to ease the transition from a pen-and-paper test to a computerised examination, Deodhar said.
Several students usually mark out relevant sections of passages in the test on which they are questioned. The software of the computerised exam will allow students to mark — in yellow — relevant sections of passages, as they are used to doing in pen-and-paper tests.
Similarly, several students arrive at answers to multiple choice questions through a process of elimination.
The examination software will allow students to cross out on the computer screen answer choices that they feel are incorrect, simulating the opportunity to mark out incorrect answers available in traditional tests.

SOURCE;CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES PORTAL