Online CAT here to stay: IIM admission panel

New Delhi, Dec 2: Despite the technical snags and virus attacks ravaging the first online Common Admission Test (CAT), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) admissions committee has said that the online format of the test is here to stay.

The panel which meet on Wednesday, Dec 2, felt apologetic for the fiasco that upset thousands of IIM aspirants. However, it stressed that CAT will be held online even in 2010.

"We (the IIMs) can't absolve ourselves..the CAT is ours. I am extremely apologetic for what has happened so far," Himanshu Rai, a professor at IIM-Lucknow and chairman of the admissions committee said on a news channel.

"We are learning (our) lessons and will take cognizance of what candidates are saying. The online CAT is here to stay...these are still the early days...I regret the inconvenience caused but we are learning from our mistakes and they won't be repeated," Rai added.

Mr Rai, who admitted the failure to foresee this despite many mock tests, urged the rescheduled candidates facing communication problems to accommodate organisers.

"Please try to accommodate us...(for rescheduling problems) please write in once more on the online e-mail ID given or call on helpline...we will try to make the exam as fair as possible. I know students have gotten stressed but from now on things will improve," he said.

The exams, which were schedule to take place across the country over the period of 10-days, were marred by malfunctioning computers, server crashes and other technical glitches over the first five days, affecting over 8,000 candidates.

OneIndia News