The last day for Prometric to notify affected students about their retest slots on January 30 and 31, 2010 was six days back on January 10 and still, confusion prevails among many candidates about their schedule or about whether they even have to take the test at all.

On January 1, the CAT authorities had announced that any candidate who qualified in any one of the seven criteria would be eligible for a retest in the second phase of CAT 2009 and that Prometric would send such candidates notifications containing their test date and venue through both email and SMS. However, according to members on the PaGaLGuY forums, there are many candidates who claim to not having received any notification from Prometric despite being eligible for the retest according to the seven criteria. On the contrary, some candidates have received retest appointments even though they had not faced any problems in CAT 2009 first phase. The candidate-care service has not been helpful, adding to problems. There are broadly three categories of candidates facing problems:

1. Candidates who faced problems of the seven types listed by the IIMs in CAT 2009 first phase but haven’t been notified for a retest.
2. Candidates who successfully took the test in the first phase but have been notified for a retest.
3. Candidates who have been asked to appear for a retest because their answers were not saved.

According to CAT convener Professor Satish Deodhar of IIM Ahmedabad, approximately 10,000 candidates, who fit in one of the seven eligibility criterion listed on catiim.in for a retest, have been identified and all have been informed about their retest slots. Professor Deodhar said, “All the candidates have been notified. Any candidate who believes that he or she is eligible for a retest but has not received any information yet should call or email Prometric stating the specific eligibility criterion for the retest.”

Is the retest optional or compulsory?

Only those candidates who could not attempt the test because of accidently pressing the ‘end’ button or those who faced problems due to computer disruptions (criterion 4 and 6) have a choice of not taking the retest, in which case the scores from their previous test will be retained. The email by Prometric regarding test schedule will specifically state if the test is optional or not. In all other cases, the candidate will have to appear for CAT 2009 second phase examination if he has been notified by Prometric.

Professor Deodhar denied that candidates had been asked to reappear for CAT because their answers were not saved in the first phase of the test. Such candidates can write to Professor Deodhar at [email protected] with details such as when and how (through phone or email) they were informed about their answers not being saved. According to him, if the information is proved correct then he would take the matter up with Prometric.