The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2014 will again be conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore. Confirming this development, Dr. Rohit Kapoor CAT 2014 Convener said, “Yes, IIM Indore is conducting CAT 2014 and I will continue to hold the position of CAT Convener”.

He also confirmed that IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will be the testing-agency for CAT 2014.

IIM Indore will hence make history by conducting two CAT exams in a row. While the IIM and CAT Convener remain the same, their partnership with TCS is expected to bring new surprises and positive changes in the CAT exam process. There are many areas in CAT examination process (like controversial score normalization process) that require a re-look, something which is high on the agenda of IIMs and TCS.

Expected significant changes in CAT 2014 exam
CAT 2013 saw various ups and downs both during the CAT exam and also after the results. CAT Aspirants can expect a lot of significant changes in CAT 2014 exam.

Key areas that need to be addressed by IIMs & TCS for successful CAT 2014 exam are:

– Scoring Issues and Court Cases
CAT aspirants are quite confused on the Normalization scoring process of IIM. Soon after the declaration of CAT 2013 results, various petitions were filed in courts over discrepancies in CAT results. At present various cases are still pending while courts have given notices to IIMs, IIM Indore and Prometric- the testing agency.

In CAT 2014, both TCS and IIM Indore have to come out with a transparent solution regarding evaluation of CAT, normalization scoring process or disclosure of raw scores to avoid this confusion and litigation.

– Boost total number of Registrations
CAT registration numbers has dipped significantly over the years and IIM Indore must make sure to boost the total number of registrations for CAT 2014.

IIM Indore introduced Online CAT Registrations for the first time in CAT 2013, which provided a lot more convenience to the aspirants. The online voucher sale received a good response from the MBA candidates had more than 55 per cent share of the total CAT vouchers sold.

But the total registration for CAT 2013 exam saw a dip of around 9% than its previous year. When the registrations ended on September 26, the last day of online registrations, around 1, 96,000 vouchers were sold, while the total registrations for CAT 2013 closed at around 1, 94,000.

This is to be kept in mind that the number of CAT takers has dipped significantly since the year 2008, when there were 2.76 lakh applicants. This number was reduced to 2.04 lakhs in 2010 and 2.05 lakhs in 2011. This trend showed a sign of revival in the year 2012, when the number grew to 2.14 lakh.

IIM Indore and TCS should continue to make CAT registration process more convenient for candidates. They should also engage with potential applicants with aggressive digital marketing.

– Avoid Technical glitches

CAT exam has been marked with technical issues and delay in exams every year. In CAT 2012, a number of incidence of technical failure, shifting of CAT test centers and delay in Biometric scan, were reported in various testing centers across Delhi NCR.

Although, last year there were no reports of any such technical issues during the 20 day window of CAT exam. The new CAT 2014 testing agency, TCS will have to make sure that CAT aspirants are not forced to face any such situation in during CAT 2014 exam.

– Avoid Error in Questions
An error in CAT question paper was reported on the first session of Day 10 on October 28, 2013 and inquired the same with Prometric (the agency which conducted CAT 2013).

Responding to the query, Prometric said, An error has been detected in one question, in a DI item in CAT 2013, during the morning exam of Oct 28th. This single question publishing error impacts 2.5% of CAT 2013 candidates.

Both IIM Indore and TCS will have to make sure that incident similar to this must not appear during CAT 2014 exam.

Source: MBAUniverse.com article.

Now CAT ’14 Candidates… what’s YOUR word on this?