With the introduction of online conducting of CAT from this year onwards, the admission procedure to the B-Schools is set to undergo a sea change. The reason cited for this new test procedure is the exponential increase in the number of students appearing for CAT. Last year 2.3 lakhs students appeared for the CAT and this year the number is expected to increase with a projection of 3 lakh plus. It’s being said that the IIMs were contemplating an online CAT since 2007 and they have finally decided to implement it now.
The newspapers have painted a rosy picture of an online CAT saying that it’s apt for the internet age, CAT will be more transparent, and there will be reduced time in evaluation and admission process not to mention the fact that CAT will be equivalent to US exams like GMAT and GRE in terms of the test pattern. (I still do not understand this undue emphasis on CAT adopting an online test pattern like GMAT and GRE.)
But the bigger picture has a different story to tell. A leading testing and assessment services firm makes a presentation to the meeting of IIM directors and they decide to go for the online CAT. It will no doubt earn the private service provider huge amounts of profits. But what about the lakhs of students who take this test? Why don’t the students have any say in deciding the test pattern? The IIMs issue a statement 6-7 months prior to the test notifying the students of the change and that’s the end of responsibility for them - No detailed explanation of the test procedure, no sample test papers. Many issues including the ones mentioned below are left unaddressed. There’s no clear indication as to how the IIMs are going to tackle the following problems.
1.The process of conducting the exam including processing the results and reporting scores is said to be going to be outsourced to a private service.
The implementation of such large scale computerization had earlier failed in case of Xavier’s Admission Test (XAT). In the light of such an event, the efficiency of such private test providers is questionable. Another issue of concern is whether the same amount of stringent security measures will be maintained in conductance of online 2009. Considering the great number of engineers taking the CAT, there’s always the danger of someone hacking into the online software.
2.Another important change is that the exam will be conducted in staggered batches within a window period of 10 days.
The statement issued by the IIMs in this regard is very equivocal. There’s no clear mention of whether each centre will be allocated a particular day for the test or if the students can take the test as per their convenience within the window period.
3.Also instead of the current single exam paper, the online test will have several different papers with the same difficulty level.
It’s almost next to impossible to set more than one paper and maintain exactly the same difficulty level. Even if all the papers contain the same weightage for each section, there’s no way they can ensure the same difficulty level. Some little changes are bound to creep in. How are the IIMs going to tackle this issue? Will the IIMs turn a blind eye to the differences in paper and adopt absolute marking for all the papers? Or will they consider relative marking?
4.Blank sheets for rough work.
In case of the old pencil & paper test, we could easily do all the calculations on the blank space on the question paper. In case of online test, there will be no option of writing or underlining key information on screen. We will either have to calculate mentally or look up to the screen to note down the figures for calculations.
5.Reading comprehension & Data Interpretation
In the old test method, we could read the questions first before reading the passage and easily surf through all the passages and decide which one to attempt first. There will be no scope for such a provision in the online test. We have all been accustomed to underlining key words, marking the important lines, possible answers to the questions. But there has been no mention of whether there will be any facility through which we can underline key words on the screen.
This will be a major problem in Data Interpretation, which usually involves study of huge amount of data in the form of tables and charts. In case of old method, one could easily do the calculations besides the table – this way it was easier to compare the results and involved less chances of error. Now with the online test, we will have to look up to the screen often, increasing the probability of missing out on some information or reading incorrect data. This will also substantially increase the time one would have to spend on each question.
6.CAT preparation
The adoption of the online test method was declared in April that is just 7 months before the actual exam. This leaves the students with very little time for preparing for the online tests. With just 5-6 months at hand, it is high time to switch to computer-based preparation and practice. The mock tests conducted by the training centers are still in the old format. IMS and TIME – the leading institutes in CAT coaching have still not introduced any online mock tests. We being the first batch of students answering an online test have no prior experience. The IIMs have not issued nay sample online test paper. The whole situation is that of bewilderment and anxiety.
And let’s not forget that India’s a developing country. There are still lots of students who have limited or no access to computers. Such students have very little experience using a computer. They would certainly be not very comfortable answering an online test.
7.Fee Hike
If the huge increase in the fees for PG programmes was not enough the fees for the test are also going to be increased by about 40-50%. Although this is not a major issue with many of the candidates, it’s still going to affect the poor and middle class students. There’s also fear of other institutes following the CAT trend and increasing their test fees too. In that the case the students will have to shell out more than 10000 to just appear for the various entrance exams.
8.The global financial recession
The global economic slump has hit several industries very badly. Many of the major companies have sledged many of their employees and a great number of them are on the bench. With the economy in recession, there are hardly any jobs and negligible appraisals. The general notion is that the MBA sector has been relatively less affected by recession. So the obvious choice for these people is to go in for a MBA. This according to them is the best time to spend 2 years in a B-School, gain knowledge and upgrade their skills. After 2 years, hopefully when the economy is revived, they can take advantage of the scenario. These guys have got work experience and they would undoubtedly have an edge over freshers like us.
Change is inevitable. But it’s crucial that the change should be introduced with little or no inconvenience. It’s the responsibility of the IIMs to ensure that the transformation is brought about without hampering the interests of the students. The ideal solution would be to have a test pattern that combines the advantages of both – the online as well as the paper-and-pencil pattern.
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When we were small kids, we were taught in moral education to help the needy. I used to wonder if I would ever get a chance to help someone. I never came across any blind man , who needed help to cross the road , nor did I ever came across an old lady who needed help to carry a heavy bag. There might have been occasions , where someone might have needed my help, but I might have failed to notice it.
Anyways, its not the point.Recently I got an opportunity to help two kids and I can't thank god enough for it.
I was on my way to MBA coaching class. At one of the stops, 2 kids got into the bus, they caught my attention the moment I saw them. They had a squalid appearance. The bus was not very crowded and there were a few vacant seats. But they were too shy or rather afraid to sit next to someone.( Most of the passengers did not want them to sit next to them, the woman who was sitting alone on my neighboring seat shifted to the edge of the seat, so that those 2 kids couldn't sit beside her).
Since I was sitting alone, I signaled them to come and sit next to me. They were talking in a language I couldn’t understand. The little fella was carrying a packet of biscuits and apparently he wanted to eat it, but his elder sister was trying to convince him not to eat that ( may be she wanted to save that to eat later ). I was so engrossed in watching them, that I didn’t see the conductor coming and asking for the fare. The girl gave him the 2 coins she had. But they weren’t enough. The conductor asked her to pay the remaining fare, and on her failure to do so, he started shouting at her in Konkani, giving her bad words. The girl was reduced to tears. I could no longer withstand that, I asked the conductor to stop shouting and offered to pay on behalf of the girl. The conductor then took the money I gave and went away.
The girl turned and looked at me with her teary eyes, and gave me a smile – that was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen in my life. It was so innocent, so pure, so genuine . They say god resides in the hearts of small children, I truly experienced it.
When we reached Panjim, they got down along with me. I watched them go and stand near a shop. I couldn’t get myself stop from gazing at them- may be they were waiting for their parents, what if they didn’t have parents, what are they going to do, where do they stay, how do they survive, who looks after them, do they go to a school – countless questions clouded my mind. I was getting late for my class, I went up to them, bought them 2 chocolates and reluctantly left for my class. I thought about them all the time in the class, when it got over, I rushed to the bus stand, hoping to see them there, but I didn’t find them near that shop. I searched frantically all over the bus stand but couldn’t find them. I’m still not able to get them off my mind. Finally I prayed to god to keep them safe where ever they were and went back to my bus with a heavy heart.
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have again hiked their fees. IIM-A last week increased fees from 11.5 lakh to 12.5 lakh citing rising costs of teaching as the reason. IIM-L also hiked its fees from Rs. 5 lakh to 8 lakh. Just last year all the IIMs had announced an unprecedented fee hikes for their two-year post-graduate programme in management. This is going to have a huge effect on the students aspiring to pursue their MBA from these elite institutes. And the situation is worsened because of the ongoing recession period.
IIMs have been subject to constant media attention. And this attention hasn’t been kind or flattering. Salaries are now reported with some cynicism and the institutions seem to have fallen from being seen as national symbols of pride to being perceived as elitist institutions. The recent fee hike by IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has done IIMs no favours either.
If at all the IIMs want to become autonomous, they should ensure that this transformation is brought gradually and without affecting the interests of the students. The IIMs from the beginning, should operate according to a well planned strategy, the IIMs must work, on the one hand, with the banks to make them provide higher loans to students, and, on the other, with the corporate sector, which should be persuaded to pay off the loans incurred by the students they recruit from the institutes, rather than having to waste their time in battling for autonomy.
The Government okayed the three-fold fee hike by the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) last year after the institute chairman Vijaypat Singhania assured that the scholarship corpus will be increased making more students eligible for scholarships.With a poor track record in disbursing scholarships in the past,wat IIM A is trying to do is to sugarcoat the fee hike with fee waiver scheme.
Although there are loans available, they are of limited use only, for average Indians 12.5 lakhs is simply too much.
First, our bank lending policy ensures loans for worthy students. The banks offer educational loans of up to Rs10 lakhs for domestic studies. Most banks also offer a repayment holiday of up to a year after graduation or six months after starting a job. But all this isn't that easy, banks take a lot of guaranty measures,the banks wont provide any loans to a poor landless farmer. The process to obtain such loans is very gruelsome. One more thing dats worth mentioning over here is that not all the amount is handed out directly to the applicant, the payments are made only after showing the receipts of fees etc, So how would the poor students manage, how are they supposed to pay the fees in the 1st place to avail of the loan schemes?
The reasons for IIM-A’s phenomenal hike are unconvincing. Recovering costs and retaining talent don't tell the full story. Many questions remain unanswered. The promise to increase scholarships can't be a reason to charge more; nor can the availability of finance. The bottom line is, for a public institution to charge more simply because it can, is senseless.
