CAT cancelled at 2 AP centres

he online common admission test (CAT) for entry in to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) had to be cancelled at two centres in the state on Sunday due to technical glitches.

About 2,000 aspirants in the state, who were appearing for the exam at the Siddhartha Institute of Engineering at Vinobha Nagar in Ibrahimpatnam and Vidya Vikas Institute of Technology at Chevella, could not appear for the test on Sunday because the computers in the 24 exam centres across the country were infected by virus. There are 104 CAT centres across the country.

Candidates who could not appear for the test have been notified and their tests are currently being rescheduled within the testing period, said Prometric, the American firm entrusted with the task of conducting the tests for around 2.41 lakh candidates.

Prometric said it has generated new appointments for aspirants who could not take the test and they are being contacted through SMS and e-mail. It said technicians have been sent to sort out the computer problems.

Even on Saturday, though the exam went of smoothly in the Andhra Pradesh, some centres in other states experience problems and had to be cancelled.

“Exhaustive plans were developed and put in place well in advance of the start of the testing window. Unfortunately, the particular viruses and malware (malicious software) that attacked the test delivery system were not detected by the anti-virus software at the testing centres,” said Mr Ramesh Nava, the vice-president and general manager, Asia Pacific, Japan and Africa, Prometric.

CAT, being conducted through computers for a period of 10 days from November 28 to December 7, got off on Saturday to a troubled start. Though students in AP had a problem-free first day, aspirants at the exam centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Bhopal faced problems on Saturday.

“We understand how stressful it is for the candidates to adapt to this new computer-based format. We truly regret the additional stress that candidates were subjected to over the first weekend of the CAT 2009, and are doing everything we can to make the rest of the testing experience as smooth as possible,” said Mr Soumitra Roy, MD, India, Prometric.