Clicking in the dark

Ever heard of the famous line “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? If you have, then you would certainly understand what I am trying to say here. But if you haven’t heard of this line, then you better mug it up soon. Because this is exactly what the concerned authorities, who conduct one of the most awaited exams of any year (CAT), have conveniently forgotten. 

They had set out to bell the CAT but instead ended up ringing the death knell for around two and a half lakh CAT aspirants. Partnering them in this mess was Prometric who are well-known for conducting the GRE in India. 

The issue cited by the CAT authorities was that the number of CAT applicants was increasing every year and it was becoming extremely difficult to manage the assessment of sheets of this humongous figure of aspirants. So, they decided to overhaul the present paper-pencil format of the exam and came up with an online format with the able help of Prometric. 

Going by the track record of Prometric of successfully conducting the GRE for years, it was expected that they would be able to handle the logistics and technological requirements required to carry out this mammoth operation. But, I believe some introspection should have been done before they nosedived into the digital pool. The authorities and Prometric might have dived without knowing how to swim but the ones who actually drowned were the students. Instead of darkening the circles, the students were circling in the dark. Instead of the system assessing the students’ answers in a flash, the system started flashing the “error” message on the screen. Students usually get tensed whether they will be able to crack the maths section or whether they will ever be able to figure out those passages in English. Instead students started getting nervous whether they will be able to even see the DI section because the Verbal section didn’t move off the screen for two and a half hours. 

The students’ careers are on the line for these two and a half hours but the CAT authorities decided, without a detailed thought, to toy around with this critical time. I do agree that this system will have to be in place sooner than later but proper, well-informed and well thought out plan should be in place for such a re-engineering idea to take shape. I personally believe that these people tried to do “too much too soon”.