CMAT aspirants outside a center in Belapur, Navi Mumbai (Photo: Ushnota Paul)

Held amidst many apprehensions and uncertainties, the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) held by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) drew to an official close on February 28, 2012.

While for most students the CMAT exam officially came to an end, the test was rescheduled to February 29 for those with their centers in Kolkata due to the nationwide trade unions’ strike on February 28. Arnab Chatterjee, a CMAT taker from Kolkata said that on February 26 he received an email and an SMS from AICTE declaring that all the test centres in Kolkata would remain closed on February 28 due to the strike and the exam has been postponed to February 29.

Vikas Bhushan, a CMAT aspirant who had travelled all the way from Pune to appear for his test in Kolkata came to know about the delay only after he had boarded the train for Kolkata on February 26. Thankfully, I had booked my return ticket to Pune for February 29 evening so I will not have a problem with the paper being rescheduled, he said. However, not everyone coming from outside Kolkata would be so lucky and some might have to face return journey rebooking woes.

Apart from this rescheduling, CMAT 2012 has not seen major snags during its nine-day duration between February 20 and 28. While common opinion has been that the paper was quite simple, a few aspirants have reported incorrect questions in the paper and also faced technical glitches during their test.

Abhinav Dayal, a CMAT aspirant from Mumbai, who had his test centre at YMT College in Kharghar did not have a very pleasant experience while appearing for the paper. According to him, the computer that was assigned to him kept crashing every few minutes and he ultimately had to be shifted to another terminal at the centre. While the instructions were being given to start the paper, my computer crashed twice. The entire process of shifting me to a different system in the centre set me back by fifteen minutes. Although I was given extra time at the end of the exam, it was still pretty inconvenient, Abhinav told PaGaLGuY.

Expressing similar concern, a student who appeared for his test at a centre in Noida and does not wish to be named said that him and a couple of other students at his centre faced a lot of technical glitches during the course of the test. The computers kept hanging and ultimately we had to shift our systems. The entire process was quite tiresome, he said.

In addition, many students who appeared for the test have reported mistakes in the CMAT paper. Patrick DSouza, owner of Quoin Academy, an MBA coaching centre in Mumbai, said that his students had spotted many mistakes in the logical reasoning and the quantitative aptitude sections. He said that while some questions had two probable answers in the options, others did not have any correct options at all. In addition, he stated that some questions had missing data.

Adding to the point, Prachi Verma, a CMAT aspirant from Mumbai shared that there were quite a few grammatical mistakes and printing errors in the logical reasoning section of the paper. Some essential words that join sentences were missing from the question. This made it difficult to understand the questions, she said. Enhancing the point, Abhinav Dayal added that even he thought that the gramatical structure of two questions in the logical reasoning was flawed, making the context of the question ambiguous.

When I called up the AICTE customer service helpline, they said that I should drop in an email to the customer service email-id and the concerned people would get in touch with me within 24 hours, Abhinav shared. However, it had been more than a couple of days and there had been no response from AICTE yet, he added.

Previously, SS Mantha, chairman of AICTE had declared that even if students did not bring attested admit cards while coming for their CMAT paper, they would be allowed to appear for the test. However, these students were expected to submit the attested admit card at their respective centres by 4:30 pm on February 28, failing which their CMAT results would not be declared. Some students faced problems while adhering to this guideline.

Rajiv Sharma, a CMAT aspirant from Mumbai who was allotted a test centre in Nasik on February 26 said that since the centre was in another city, he was worried as to how he would submit his attested admit card to the centre authorities. Finally, I have couriered the admit card to the centre people and I hope that they receive it in time, he told PaGaLGuY.

Some CMAT aspirants also shared experiences wherein the colleges hosting the CMAT test tried to grab the opportunity to promote themselves to the test-takers. While a couple of centres reportedly distributed free tea and coffee and even ‘Frooti’ juice packs to test takers, a couple others went to the extremes of submitting college brochures and even showing a Powerpoint presentation covering the courses taught at the institute and that advantages students will have studying at the college.

I had my test at Guru Nanak Khalsa College in Mumbai. The authorities not only made us fill up a form with our details, it simultaneously showed us a Powerpoint presentation with details about their college campus and course details. It was a clear marketing gimmick the college adopted to try and influence students, a CMAT aspirant from Mumbai who did not wish to be named said.

Despite repeated attempts by PaGaLGuY to contact AICTE chairman SS Mantha for his comments, he did not respond.