IIM Fails in its First Test

A successful completion of this online CAT 2010 entrance test would

have added another feather to IIM's cap. But that was not to be as

servers crashed at several locations resulting in cancellation of test

at those centers. About 2.41 lakh students across the country are

expected to take the exam in 105 centres in 32 cities in the next ten

days. Some of the technical problems faced by students included

restarting of the system all over again several times and non

acceptance of passwords given to students. These glitches were reported

from Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bhopal.






Official statement posted on CAT's website post crash said,
“The launch of the computerized CAT involved the delivery of

exams by Prometric into more than 360 testing labs at 104 individual

locations. While a significant majority of the candidates successfully

completed their exams on Day One, various technical issues arose at

selected computers in approximately 50 labs that prevented

approximately 2,000 exams from being delivered. Prometric has generated

new appointments for these individuals and they are in the process of

being contacted through SMS and email messages. Prometric technicians

have been dispatched to address these isolated problems. To avoid

candidate inconvenience and to allow for the necessary repairs to be

completed at the impacted labs, Prometric has scheduled a closure of

these labs on Sunday, 29 November 2009. Candidates affected by this

closure will also be notified by Prometric in the manner described

above and provided with new appointments within this year’s

testing period.”






It also put a
list of Labs
which will remain

closed for examination to be held on November 29, 2009. Students have

been advised to call up  Prometric Candidate Care at

1-800-103-9293 for any clarification. Prometric's Managing Director of

India, said, “As a result of isolated technical issues some

candidates are being rescheduled and provided with a new appointment

via email and SMS.”






This was the first time in the history of CAT that IIM, which conducts
the test, decided to outsource the entire testing process to Prometric,

an American company. The contract dating to April 2009 was worth worth

millions of dollars. Prometric's CEO then had said,  "The

breadth of Prometric's business is truly global, which means that our

most valuable assets – our skilled employees, test center

network, data centers and call centers – are distributed

across many countries around the world; this is a huge advantage to all

our clients and one they will never find with any other

provider.”  






The server crash caught both IIM and
Prometric offguard and was a lesson to be better prepared for such

large scale online tests, which require a robust IT infrastructure.