The most awaited CAT 2010 registration has finally begun. Not wanting to be a mere spectator to everybody’s comments, I decided to try my hand at the process myself. More so this year, because I wanted to experience the preparedness of Prometric and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for this year’s test.

After procuring my voucher from the Axis Bank branch in Fort, the two slips of paper were amongst my latest, most prized possessions. It also brought back memories of 2003, when I had first filled the CAT form. That time it was a similar stamped pay-in form, but with it was an envelope that contained the brochure which had the application form in it, to be filled by hand.

After scratching the voucher for the voucher number, I decided to register instantly. The voucher has detailed instructions on how to go about the registration process from mentioning the CAT website address to the details that would be mentioned on the admit card. The voucher also prints a ‘Disclaimer’ where the candidates are warned not to provide any false information and if the candidate is found to provide false information, he/she will not be allowed to appear for CAT in the future.

As I began the process of registering, at first, the website took over 3-4 minutes to respond and the session ended abruptly. After the first bubble of excitement burst, I geared up for it again and started afresh.

As I started filling up the details in the registration form and pressed the submit button, the form popped right back. “The user name can contain only alphabetic characters”, it said to my initially entry of adding an under-score between my name and surname. After making the needed change in the user name, I filled all the details once again and submitted. The form popped right back saying ‘The password has to be 7 to 20 characters with atleast one numeric character”. I had to begin the process of filling the form from scratch, this time keeping the instructions about the user name and password in mind.

I’d like to suggest to Prometric and IIMs, that little hints, somewhere on the form on exactly how to go about filling the form will save a lot of time and stress.

I finally got it all right with the first page and on reaching the second where i was asked to file details regarding my previous academic and work experience.

On the whole, the registration process took me 20 – 25 minutes to complete, which is considered to be much quicker than the last year’s registration process, where in CAT aspirants took even more than an hour. Even the form has been made more precise and detailed, though seeking more information from the candidate.

As soon as i completed filling the form, giving the date preference for the test, slot and the center where I would be taking the test, an email from ’email confirmations’ arrived instantly on my email id. Thankfully, that at lest was fast and without error.