By NDChronicle.com Correspondent,
Thanks to the compter-based test the number of applicants for the Common Admission Test for premier B-Schools, mostly IIMs, has been falling. For the first time in 34 years it has extended its registration deadline by a week, from September 30 to October 7.
For years, the entrance test has been the source of revenue for the IIMs. For example in 2007-'08, India’s premier B-schools earned Rs 2.98 crore just by conducting CAT. But in 2009, the test graduated from being a paper-pencil one to computer-based test.
The fall in number is attributed to this switch over as a large number of aspirants from nooks and corners of the country who were not comfortable taking the computer-based test. Besides, there was some goof up and the examination had to be taken the next day.
This year again, the number of cities where test centres have been set up, has fallen.
However Prometric, the American company which conducts the computer-based test, said in a Press Release that “the decision to extend the registration period was undertaken in order to provide candidates with additional opportunity to register and at the request of some candidates who required a longer registration period.”
CAT convener Himanshu Rai, however, said extension of the registration period had nothing to do with the falling registration numbers. “I don’t have the data on how many students have registered for CAT-2010 but those wanting to take CAT would have done so by now. Also, if someone has decided not to take the test, they wouldn’t,” he was quoted in the Times of India.
