Implications of a computer-based CAT

Source: Pagalguy

Last month's announcement by the Indian Institutes of Management about the Common Admissions Test (CAT) going computer-based has left a lot of questions unanswered. While the July form notification will clear the air to a large extent, it will be interesting to see how the IIMs tackle certain issues that come packaged with an online test. Here are some aspects of the computer-based CAT that would make for good food for thought.

CAT 2009 will not exactly be an 'online' test

According to a high placed source at IIM Bangalore, “Test takers will not be required to be connected to the Internet at the time of the test. They will be attempting the test at terminals." The test will be already downloaded on the computer alloted to you and not administered via the Internet. Like the IIMs have said, it will be a 'computer-based test'. The testing environment therefore will not be hostage to slow Internet speeds or disconnections.

Increased cost of forms, applications completely managed by Prometric

The cost of taking the CAT 2009 is expected to be higher than that in earlier years. "The increase in examination fee is not expected to be in excess of 50 percent," says our source. Even if the CAT application form does cost 50 % more, it amounts to Rs 2,000 for the General category and about Rs 1,000 for the SC/ST category.

Not only are the IIMs outsourcing the CAT to the USA-based Prometric Services, they are also looking at laying the complete end-to-end responsibility of the CAT to the renowned testing agency that also administers the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) worldwide.
"In the first year the IIMs will be involved in processing of applications and once the model is established in the next two-three years, the only involvement of the IIMs will be in receiving final scores. Applications will be sent to Prometric and not to the IIMs as was the case in earlier years,” the source adds.

The IIMs also seem to be playing safe with the computer-based CAT in its first year.

“The results of the test will probably be declared after four-six weeks. It will not be possible for students to see test results immediately after attempting the test. We are being cautious as this is the first year of conducting the CAT as a computer based test,” says Prof Subhashish Gupta, Admissions Chairperson at IIM Bangalore.

"A decision has currently not been taken about whether CAT 2009 will be a computer adaptive test (that is, whether the difficulty of questions served by the computer will be adjusted according to accuracy of the test-taker). Students will in all probability be allowed to do rough calculations on paper provided at the test center and also go back and forth between different test sections while attempting the test," he further adds.

The computer-based test format

The bottleneck in a computer-based testing system is the rate of availability of infrastructure in the limited time in which the exam is going to be administered in. Since the IIMs have announced that the CAT 2009 is going to be held over a period of 10 days, it's a fair assumption to make that the questions are not going to be repeated beyond one testing session. Which means that the pool of questions is going to be very large and according to a few sources, the questions are going to be prepared by Prometric and not the IIMs?
However, the IIMs will have to put a very stringent procedure to make sure that every question paper administered in the 10 days of CAT 2009 is equal in difficulty level beyond doubt.

Prof Gupta says, “As is the case with the GRE, it will be statistically ensured that when the student attempts the test does not affect his test score. The experience of writing the test will be the same across the ten day period. We are trying to ensure that the computer based test is as similar as possible to the paper-pencil format.”

Infrastructure tightrope

In 2003, the Xavier's Admission Test (XAT, accepted by Xavier's Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur) made an abortive attempt at going computer-based. Barely 9 hours before the commencement of the test, the test was called off. The reasons for the cancellation were never well-known, though the official statement announcing return to the paper-pencil based test placed the blame on poor infrastructure.

Computer infrastructure in India has decidedly undergone a vast change since 2003, so has the number of trained computer network professionals. However, given that the interest in CAT amounts to over 2.5 lakh people across India, executing the CAT without any glitches is going to be a logistical challenge of gargantuan proportions, probably unheard of in India. If the IIMs and Prometric are indeed able to pull off a bug-free CAT, it would be an achievement to reckon with.
Assuming 2.5 lakh CAT takers over 10 days of testing, each day 25,000 MBA aspirants will take the CAT countrywide. Assuming 23 cities for test centers, it amounts to 1,086 tests per day per city. If the test duration remains 2.5 hours, then in a single day there would be three sessions of testing with 360 candidates in each. Which means, that each test center needs to have a working capacity of 360 working computers?

Of course, the unequal distribution of registered test-takers across small and large towns will make larger cities need higher capacities of computers.
We shall know in due course the kind of infrastructure Prometric is building, but will it be able to provide a uniform testing environment across the nation? Establishments housing desktop computers (computer training institutes, cyber cafes) have their own set of idiosyncrasies. Not everyone may get to take the test on a flicker-free flatscreen monitor that is not a strain on the eye. Likewise, computers might be slow at places or have partially malfunctioning mouse or keyboards. Even corporate establishments have to struggle to keep their computers virus and malware free. Technically speaking, even the most sporadic of cases of bad testing infrastructure would leave the CAT system vulnerable to litigation by test-takers.

It has been reported that the IIM-Prometric deal surrounding the CAT exam is worth $40 million. One expects Prometric to use the money to go on an overdrive putting a world-class computer testing facility across the country.

Too esoteric?

The CAT has traditionally been feared in smaller towns of India primarily because of the difficulty level of the English and Reading Comprehension sections. An unfamiliar testing format and increased form cost may discourage many to skip the CAT and instead concentrate on state-level management entrance exams or the Management Aptitude Test (MAT), thus resulting in only the more serious MBA aspirants taking the CAT 2009.
How MBA aspirants embrace the computer-based CAT on a large scale further depends on how easy the test preparation or coaching classes make it for them. Coaching class businesses in India are based on the franchisee structure, which puts a lot of the business expansion initiative on the local businessman who runs the city center of a test-prep agency. In smaller towns, franchisees will have to see enough business opportunity in training for an online CAT in order to make lakhs of rupees of investments in computer labs. The training courses also have to remain affordable for MBA aspirants.

Beautiful Quote with a lot of essence to it!!!!

Today I got this word "ephemeral" in a mail as the word of the day. It was beautified in such a splendid manner via a quote that I simply could not resist myself from giving it a thought. The Quote goes like this:

"Success is very ephemeral. You depend entirely on the desire of others, which makes it difficult to relax"

Success is for very short time. You cannot hold it back and enjoy because you are dependent on many people for each and every small thing in your life. If you are happy you need people around you to share your happiness and make it ecstasy for you. When you are sad you need your loved ones to console you and cheer you up. When you wanna party you need people to be a part of it. So it’s never about your desire or your liking it’s always relative and somehow depends upon "others" around you.

Gautam Gambhir – Still under appreciated??

Today India created history by winning over New Zealand on their soil after 41 years. This magnificent and obviously deserving victory was resulted because of exuberant performances by almost every individual of the team. It may be the centuries scored by Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Gambhir or may be some world class bowling by Zaheer, Bhaji, Ishant or the perfect leadership of the captain Dhoni. Everybody make sure to chip in at some point or the other and made their presence felt. All and all it was a fabulous team effort which continued the winning streak of this legendary Indian cricket team.

But in this fury of victories and accolades almost everyone has sidelined the most consistent player in the team - Gautam Gambhir. He scored an ample 450 runs with 2 centuries and 1 half century & played the vital role in this commendable victory. I remember, the first significant performance by this chap was during the T20 world cup. He was the highest run getter in the tournament. He scored some 250 odd runs with an average of around 40 with 3 half centuries, which is simply splendid in T20 form of cricket. But he was nowhere in the credit list when it came to sharing the honour of becoming world champs. The 6 on 6 streak of Yuvraaj and the so called majestic captaincy of Dhoni way surpassed the unfathomable performance of Gambhir.

After the T20 WC this chap had no looking back. He proved his mettle in every form of cricket & against almost all the great guns of world cricket. He took no time in converting his image of a splendid T20 player into a world class ODI and Test Player. No matter against whom he was playing he was consistently delivering the same charismatic performance. The teams of Australia, Sri Lanka, England and recently New Zealand all witnessed some world class batting from this gentleman. In the recent series against New Zealand he played a marathon inning of over 10 hrs in Napier test to save India from the almost a sure defeat.

Despite of delivering consistent performance from last couple of year, I somehow feel he is not getting the proper recognition and respect in the team which he is worthy of. He is still treated as the underdog in the team. He himself accepted in an interview that before this series he was not at all confident about his place in Indian team. Though after the Napier match he was called as the second Wall of Indian cricket, but this tag soon got lost in the Dhoni, Bajji song of Indian Media who are unreasonably treated as god of Indian cricket. I mean I simply can’t understand if a player is scoring consistently in all forms of cricket for over 2 years but he is still not confident about his place in the team & cannot grab the attention of Media then who can be sure about it? Is it something like who are good at words and have good rapport with the management can be relaxed about their future? Is our Media biased with the Masala news?? Do media have the sense of making a good thing good and a bad thing bad??

I am sure not everyone will agree to this, but this is how I feel about the kind of attention and recognition Gauti is getting. I just wish he will get the desired credibility and appreciations for the top quality performances which he is producing on every pitch against every country.

Fight to rise above the Mob

Last week I read an interesting book with an equally interesting title by Mainak Dhar. It’s called “The funda of Mixology”. I am sure the topic will appeal to both kind of people, the one who drink and the one who don’t :). In the book, author has beautifully simulated life with a cocktail drink. He has tried to convey the sweet and concise message about blending various emotions to make life lively n vigorous, in a unique manner. As a drink requires exact proportion of its ingredients to make it perfect, on the same lines, your life demands bits and pieces of every flavour every colour available with you to make it successful. Life has many facets beyond one's career, such as one's passions outside of work, family, one's health etc. You cannot run after one aspect, sidelining the others, and achieve the zenith in your life. Focussing on your target is good but ignoring its repercussions is not wise.

Though the story was quite filmy and impractical but it had the essence to drag your attention. I am very much impressed by one particular poem mentioned in the book. It inspires to create your own identity and fight for it. It goes like this....

A thousand voiceless faces
cast in the same mould,
silently urging you
to do as you're told.

A thousand faceless voices
speaks in the same tone,
urging you to suppress
the song of your own.

Fight to rise above the mob
For when all is told and done,
All you really have to show
Is the little individuality you’ve won

I am not sure whether it will inspire you but it did to me, hence deserves an entry here.

All n all it’s just another book for all......but with a slightly different blend of flavour :)

Delhi 6 --->> Movie review

Yesterday night I saw Delhi 6 (The Premiere Show :))
And yeah…. It was good :)

I will say it's not very excellent (which I was expecting it to be)...but it's fairly good and above the "Do watch" level benchmark.

The most important problem about the movie was its high expectations. Actually after RDB everybody was expecting nothing but something better than RDB from Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra. Though he has not been able to deliver the same exuberance here again but at the same time he has not let his standards go down and has produced a reasonably good show.

The best part about the movie is the backdrop of the typical Delhi city which the Director has used. Also the characters which he has used in his movie are simply amazing. Though in the beginning you will find it quite crowded but as the film progresses you will realize the importance and need of each character. He has actually succeeded in depicting the situation of a typical Indian community which faces various problems of hoax, religion discrimination which leads to riots. At one point he has tried to show the sensitive issue of Indian females who are forced to get married out of there will, abandoning their dreams of making big in life and on the other point he has tried to touch the heart of millions of Indians, who are staying abroad, with the feeling of belongingness to their county.

But I personally feel he consumed a lot of time in setting up the plot for all these issues and took a little less time in conveying the message which he actually wanted to in the end. Director failed to develop the zeal in the viewers for doing something for social causes which should have come after watching the movie. May be he could not communicate the message in the way he wanted to the audience.

Apart from these issues director tried to show a little cute love affair developing slowly between Roshan and Bittu, which felt quite original and had problems of its own. There were certain sequences in the movie which were unique in themselves specially the Raamlila scenes which we not often find in our movies. The abstract simulation of NYC and Delhi in the song Dil Gira Dafatan was also worth watching. Music of the movie was simply splendid. Rahman rocks as always :). There was song for every possible situation in the movie. The best thing about these songs was that they were not the complete songs. Director has used just 1 or 2 stanza of most of the songs which avoided the feeling of having too much of muzic in the movie.

I would recommend the movie as at least one time watch and would request you all not to go by the ratings or reviews. You go to movie, watch it and feel and probably you will the right person to rate it for yourself.

Word of caution..
Just don’t go to the theater with any expectations :) :)

Hello World!!!!!

After ages of cribbing and no no’s I have finally made myself to write something out of my own, instead of copying it down from somewhere ;). Now I seriously don’t know what this something is going to be. It’s actually a mystery for me ....n its going to be unfolded in front me in the same way as it is going to be for you people. Probably I should say I will re-discover myself with you guys :). This "something" can be anything movies, music, books, cricket, tennis any possible stuff which I have clue of :). My intent would be to convert this something to every possible thing.

I actually wanted to write ever since I read my first book (don’t want to recall but yeah sadly it was The Alchemist :( ). But the real enlightment came after “Five point someone” which I read very after the Alchemist. I was totally mesmerized by Chetan Bhagat’s writing style and was forced to believe books are not all that bad ..... And since then there was no looking back.... Inspired by so many of Indian writers I am finally preparing myself to take the plunge in this beautiful world of words, hoping to get myself engrossed in the love of language.

I will need your feedbacks both the positive and the negative to boost me up and improve upon my shortcomings. So guys here comes my very first Official post on the blog :)