Ending months of speculation the IIMs recently annnounced that the CAT exam is going online from November 2009.
Now this raises several issues. As the TOI notes:
If the exam goes online, not all students will be able to take the exam on the same day as is the case now. The exam will have to be conducted in staggered batches within a window period of a few months. The other change will be that instead of the current single exam paper, the online test will have several different papers of the same level of difficulty.
The report also notes that the exam will be 'similar' to GMAT and GRE except that the results will not appear instantly.
However, I am not sure if that is factually correct. The GMAT and GRE follows a Computer Adaptive model. As the Princeton Review explains:
The computer adapts the test to how you answer the questions. You’ll start off the test with a question of medium difficulty - if you answer it correctly, question number two will get a bit more challenging. Get that one right, and question number three gets harder still. The opposite is true as well. This system continues until you get to the end of the section and your ability level on that subject is determined.
Will the CAT also go the computer adaptive way or will it be a random set generated each time from a master bank of questions? We don't know yet.
Change is always difficult to accept and there may be some hiccups. But I am sure a way will be found to ensure the test is 'fair', computer adaptive or otherwise
Currently there are two admission tests in India which are solely online:
a) BITSAT - for BITS Pilani, Goa (and now Hyderabad)
b) NMAT - for NMIMS
Any of you who've experienced these tests, pls do drop me a line at rashmi_b at yahoo.com with your contact number. Folks who've taken GRE/ GMAT - I'd like to hear from you as well.
And of course, all are welcome to join in the discussion in the comments!
I am a student of BITS Pilani and I have taken the BITSAT online examination for getting into this college.
ReplyDeleteBITS has been conducting this exam for 3 years now (this is the 4th year). The system of exam has shown its different faces in terms of its merits and demerits. Though the obvious advantages of an online exam (coupled with the convenience of choosing your own time and date for the exam - and instant notification of results - and no human error or intervention etc) cannot be undermined, there are enough debates on whether a system that relies on randomly picking up questions from a question bank will ever be fair enough for all the students taking the test. Personally, I do feel that online examinations have a long way to go towards being a perfectly just tool for testing examinees for such prestigious institutes.
As far as IIMs are concerned, having a "random-question-bank" model for CAT could hardly be successful. Unless we have a more intelligent and well-tested design as we see in GMAT/GRE, testing so many lakhs of students on a common scale would be just impossible.
hey..
ReplyDeleteI read ur blog regularly..and thot if i can be of any help it wud be great..
I did my GRE in last december and november..In my first try I got only 1100...with 450 in verbal and 650 in quant..It was surprsing coz verbal was always my stronghold and naturally being an arts student,i was apprehensive on the math front.since i definitely wanted to improve my score, i tried the test again..and got a 1250 with verbal just a 500 and math with a whopping 750..now as far as I have understood...the first questions matter in gre...and that determines ur fate..and especially in reading comprehensions in verbal determine ur fate..coz i was pretty sure about my antonyms and fill ups being correct...and for the math..i was so damn sure about not knowing any of the last questions..
besides watever said and done,there is a huge amount of standardization in gre and gmat..wil CAT be able to reproduce it?
I have some strong apprehensions r to online CAT. Firstly, this move might be a big obstacle for the people who still afraid of internet. Remeber, In india the no. of internet users is increasing manifold but the no. of people who use internet for shopping, banking etc. is still very small, that means people rely on net for info, but dont trust that as a medium for important work.
ReplyDeleteSecondly as many have argued that it would be a herculian task to conduct online CAT fairly and at the large sacle.Its really next to impossible to make so many papers of same difficulty level.
Thirdly, The popularity of CAT might be reduced as people would find GMAT/GRE and other exams worth enuff to give a shot.
Well, I appeared for GRE and TOEFL in 2004..The tests did follow the Computer Adaption Theory..If you answer first few questions right then it is certain that you will pass out in flying colours..I scored 790 in Maths and a tiny 400 in verbal..Being from Gujarati medium and not at all interested in reading novels and books, verbal was my paramount matter of concern..
ReplyDeleteI m happy that CAT is going online now..There will be hiccups in the begining but after all change is the only thing which is constant..
The online exam maybe a step in the right direction. I have seen a lot of aspirants having to come down from "onsite" just to write CAT!
ReplyDeleteHowever, the huge fee hike is a little scary. I am sure you have a post coming up on that. My feeling is that the hike has all but shut out entrepreneurs coming fresh out of IIMA and B. Especially since the banks tend to penalize entrepreneurs. The argument of whether this is good or bad is open ! 10-12 lakhs in debt is not a good way to start off and will be a big deterrent.
Regards,
Sandeep
Well I do not think that its necessary to have a Computer Adaptive test like GRE/GMAT for CAT also.
ReplyDeleteI think they can very well manage with the large database throwing questions at you randomly. Thats what is in a way happening in the off-line test too. You have a set of questions in front of you and you choose to answer the ones you are sure of.
Not all students answer all questions here also, in the paper based test.
Online, major issue will be just that, you will be seeing the questions one at a time. This is my perspective anyhow!
The NMAT for NMIMS is not online. It's a written test
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons, CAT came down with number of questions is that you can not have a large quantity of the QA and DI questions of the quality that is expected of CAT paper. The questions have to be at Class 10th level, they should be seemingly difficult, and should be solvable using more of commonsense than other skills. GMAT is having a large pool of questions to choose from because they rely more on the Analytical reasoning, which is Verbal oriented. Maths questions in GMAT are quite easy.
ReplyDeleteEven if CAT goes online, I think there wouldn't be a pool of questions to choose from. It would just change the medium of delivery of question paper.
CAT ONLINE
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned how could a student’s performance would be affected if he or she is not tech savvy student donot have to do programming while taking test. He just has to control mouse and select the correct option. By and large he would be have to knowledge of computer atleaast MSoffice as now doing MBA without computer it is like as cricket without audience.
I regularly read you blogs and even comment if you could reminisce. I donot have net at home and so I have to got to cyber café where it is not economical to both read any articles it is time consuming or take print out. I urge you please paraphrase article before posting.