Ahmedabad:
As Rahul prepares to take online Common Admission Test (CAT), he's not quite convinced about the new format of the examination.
This year, many like Rahul who want to get into IIMs will have to take the test online. It's a first but some candidates are questioning its very logic.
"We will face severe difficulties in going through the tables, the mathematics portion and even going through the charts on the question paper in cyber space. Had it been a paper-pen test, we could have gone through it in comfort and could have responded to the questions faster than an online test," said Rahul Jain, CAT candidate.
Another CAT candidate Suraj Mehta says, "We were preparing for a conventional mode of examination for last two years eyeing CAT 2009 and now just six months before the D-day, they announce to make it online"
This year the number of candidates has dipped 12 per cent compared to last year. Experts blame it on the changed test format.
"The online test is definitely not favourable for millions of talented students who come from smaller towns and villages as most of them do not have the capacity to afford regular mock tests online and that is why there is drop in number of students which we are seeing going up every year steeply," said Dr Amit Agrawal, CAT expert.
While IIMs claim that online CAT means a huge savings of their monetary resources in addition to stop wastage of manpower for holding the examination in convention mode, CAT aspirants seem not convinced and happy with the logic of holding CAT online.