Retest: a fair decision

So, the results of the test are out... not the CAT itself but the decision by the IIMs on what next?

Evidently, good sense has prevailed and Mr Samir Barua, Director of IIM Ahmedabad has been quoted in The Times of India today saying: "The focus of IIMs is to complete the test in a fair manner. But the entire test will be reviewed to ensure that such problems do not occur in future."

If you read the Business Standard, however, the tone of the report is somewhat different and the focus seems to be on what will happen to Prometric when their contract is reviewed.

Now, every contract must be reviewed periodically but it doesn't necessarily follow that a review leads to an exit, does it? The focus should be on ensuring that the deserving candidates - i.e. those who suffered - get a fair chance at the retest minus any glitches. Everything else is secondary and it's time everyone concerned figured this out.

To all those who will take the retest of the CAT 2009, all the best!

Z-category Security for CAT data?

Yahoo says Prometric is taking all the steps needed to ensure that the data and the tests would remain secure. That's reassuring but isn't that to be expected anyway? As long as they now don't ask for Z-category security because that could endanger some other VIPs ;-)

Now, let's just hope this is the last we hear on this issue and can move on to the results of the exam. Hopefully, there will be no delay there.

Although the chaiwalla outside the IIMC gate says he overheard two students discussing this and one of them believes any controversy is good. Now, he feels, people will take the CAT a lot more seriously and not just try and crack the exam at any cost by getting trained at any of these coaching classes.

What, yaar, how did he get crack the CAT, I'd like to know?

I am not alone :-)

At last, at least one another sane voice in this madness :-) Thank you Mr Sachidanand.

Future Tense?

Just because the present has problems, must we run away from an inevitable future?

There are several stakeholders in the CAT 2009 entrance tests that seem to be dogged (pun unintended) by controversy. Now that the tests are over for the students, it's the IIMs who are being tested by all and sundry: the Government, rival testing companies and God knows who else!

One tends to forget that there are actually only four stakeholders who really matter:

1. The students.
2. Their families.
3. The institutes (including the IIMs) who will admit these students.
4. And corporates will eventually recruit these students.

Of these, the first and the last are the most important - the IIMs are, anyway, in the midst of it all already. And, it's time someone spoke to the students themselves to ask them what they feel. Did the majority go through the kind of nightmare that now seems to be touted everywhere? Would they be willing to go through the stress of another CAT test again?

I find people a few years younger than me far more mature and practical than I was in their age. They've got their heads screwed on right and take a very pragmatic view of life. Like this young lady here:

Now that the tests are over, perhaps it's time the action moved on as well. The students have their regular college exams to focus on - and remember, that's as important as the CAT. It's time a reassurance was given that will send out a strong signal to the world at large that India - and its premier B-Schools - are capable of going digital. Everyone has had hiccups when they introduced online tests - even the famed GMAT and GRE in a land as developed as the US of A.

As the lady says in this video, "change is always for the good". And good will triumph, always.

CATty Kids?

Overheard a conversation between some security guards outside a CAT test centre in NOIDA:

Bheegi-billi ki tarah aate hain yeh bachchein CAT dene. Phir kareinge MA, MBA, PhD aur na jaane kya. Uske baad, office jaayenge aur kutton ki tarah ladenge... shayad iss liye CAT bolte hain issko.

A Testing Time for Test Centres

There are some prep-centres that are projecting themselves as saviours of the kids this year by saying that the CAT must remain a paper test.

Now, if you ask me, this is a bit like Mr Bean shooting himself in the foot ;-)

Now, the coaching centres will fret and fume because the digitisation of the exam means that they need to reinvent and reinvest in their very profitable business. It's a bit like the politicians who raved and ranted when the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were introduced. Incidentally, as a piece of trivia, it's useful to know that the world's largest democracy introduced EVMs in Kerala in 1982 but it was only in 2004 that the entire election went electronic (source: The Hindu).

You get the general drift, don't you?

Test centres prefer paper tests because that's what they're used to. So, they'll create enough noise and fury - forgetting about Copenhagen and global warming - but clearly don't have a pulse of their own students. Here's Arun, a student who thinks online is the way to go:


But, are the test-centres listening?

Hyped-up Problems

Okay, here's one that says what I've been trying to say: "The problems are hyped up," says this gent who also gave the CAT this year:

Easy to Bell the CAT

Take a look at this young lady. She's positively happy about the online test - perhaps because she found it easy :-)

More important, she says she faced no problems.


Do you know anyone with a similar experience? I'll be happy to interview them and carry their stories as well.

Is a part of the Media Playing to the Gallery?

And here we go again :-)

The more I read, the more disgusted I feel. Why do so many of our newspapers and TV channels go out and capture mediocrity. Is it because that's what is popular and sells more. Of course it's true that bad news makes better headlines but surely that doesn't mean one sacrifices a sense of balance and fair play.

Or, does it?

If I were a reporter standing outside a college and spoke to a dozen kids emerging after the CAT tests, what do you think I would capture as verbatims? Would all of them have negative things to say or would there be some who would give the other side of the picture? Common sense tells us it'll be the latter. But the papers would like us to believe it's the former: the world of the CAT 2009 test-taker, according to them, is all black.

I read something that had appeared in the online edition of The Times of India a few days ago in which the Education Minister had asked the IIMs for an explanation. Now we all know that the IIMs are a national treasure but must everything become a political issue? Anyway, that's not the point here... if you read the article, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was a national disaster akin to an earthquake or a tsunami. But, hats off to The Times of India for being the leader they are! I mean how many journalists would publish feedback from their readers even if it contradicts what their own journos say? If you go deeper and read the comments that TOI readers have posted, the real picture emerges: sure, things were bad but not as bad as the reporter made it out to be. Unfortunately, the comments don't seem to have been factored into the main story but the beauty of the digital medium is that it allows readers to express themselves and say their piece - unedited, uncensored. Way to go TOI!

And, great going IBN Live as well: look at their readers' comments as well. They could have edited out the ones that congratulate the IIMs and remained one-sided but, no, they carried both sides of readers' feedback. That's maturity for you. I'd like to buy the editor a paapri-chaat :-)

Listen to Jai here: Do you hear him saying that "there may be glitches" and that he didn't face any? Do you also hear him saying that very few of the practice tests happened online by one of the institutes he studied with?

Or listen to these two people who gave the test the same day at another centre in Gurgaon. Yeah, yeah, I can't be in two places so I got a couple of friends to do their bit and that's how we got some more vox populi captured.

Now, that's something to think about, isn't it? Clearly, they didn't face any problems but will we ever see them in the 'breaking news' sections of all our TV channels?

What's your take on this, folks?

Has the CAT really gone to the dogs?

Over the last few days, every newspaper and TV channel has gone ballistic about the CAT 2009 exams. Even portals and blogs have gone to town blasting the IIMs and everyone else involved with the test. All they've been saying is that the online tests should be scrapped and we should go back to paper tests. Haven't they heard of Copenhagen? Haven't they heard that evolution is always painful?

And, as if this were not enough, even test-centres youth-oriented websites been putting up polls and forum and videos about how bad the whole online experience has been.

Frankly, I'm sick of reading the same stuff repackaged in different media.

So, I decided to set out on my cousin's trusted Bullet and shoot some candid footage for myself. Basically, get a real idea of what's going on. I landed up at a college in Dwarka in Delhi (yes, I live in Mumbai but am currently parked here 'coz my babe's got a temp job).

The college where the Prometric chaps were conducting the test is called Apeejay School of Management:

View Larger Map

And, this is the first guy I spoke to:



Now, having heard him, what do you think?

Paapri Chaat 2.0

Okay folks, the Paapri Chaat as you know it, has just reinvented itself.

And, why not? With everything else going though a new, improved relaunch, why shouldn't this see a version 2 as well?

It's time to take a fresh look at life as we know it, as driven by the media and by people with vested interests. And come back to the basics of a good old streetside view of things. Without the hype but with all the asli masala.

Don't get taken in by what you read and hear and see in official media and in blogs pushed by companies. Remember, God gave you two ears and two eyes: so, use them well to listen and to look before you make up your mind on anything.

Over the next few posts, I'm going to focus on issues that affect us all but are overhyped in only one direction.

To start with, the spotlight's on this year's CAT entrance tests...

As they say, aagey aagey dekho hota hai kya :-)

Ah but who am I, you may ask?

As the Big B once famously said, "Rishtey mein toh hum tumhare baap lagtey hain, par naam hai Budhi Raja."