Thakur College, a CAT centre in Mumbai wears a deserted look this afternoon

As PaGaLGuY writes this piece, the most powerful country in the world votes for its future. Apart from the significance of today due to the American presidential elections, this day also marks the end of the testing window for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2012. While lakhs of management aspirants took CAT 2012 with the hope of a better future, the exam itself would be remembered for the many hopes it dashed owing to owing to technical snags, server problems and delays which left candidates angry and Prometric hiding for cover.

The last day of the 21-day testing window, however, saw no errors which had come to mark CAT 2012. PaGaLGuY went to some centres in Mumbai and New Delhi and spoke to the candidates taking CAT on the last day. Most of the candidates exiting the test centre on the last slot of the last day at Asia Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi, wore relieved and smiling expressions. They declared the paper to be quite simple, although some found the quant section slightly more difficult than the verbal and logical reasoning sections. Arush Warmorkar, a CAT taker at Thakur College of Science and Commerce centre in Mumbai said, “I had a good experience and did not face any issue during the exam.”

However, atleast two text takers shared their apprehension about problems with language used in a couple of questions in the quant section of the paper. According to Ankita Mehta, a final year B.Com student from Delhi University, although the wrong language did not affect the meaning of the question, she spent some extra time on the question. “Reading blood sugar in the question and blood pressure in the answer options confused me for a minute. Then I thought that maybe there is a mistake in the question and I marked the answer anyway,” she told PaGaLGuY. Vishesh Kumar, another aspirant added: “English was quite hard especially the reading and comprehension part.”

Hiren Dhuri, an aspirant who took CAT in Mumbai today said that he faced a delay of ten minutes due to a login error.

What snags?

PaGaLGuY also asked students whether all the negative talk surrounding CAT 2012 had any impact on their performance. To the surprise of this online magazine, many students were not even aware of such issues in CAT 2012. One exam taker from the first slot said, “I was not worried as all the disruptions happened outside Mumbai.”

Others were aware. Meera Mohan, a CAT taker from Thakur Polytechnic, Mumbai said, “I did not face any technical problems although I had heard about students in Delhi and other centres who had faced them. I was hoping that I wouldnt have to go through the same and luckily it went off smoothly.”

But the CAT takers admitted that it would have impacted them in some way had they known about disruptions at their centres. Swapnil Lokhande, an aspirant from Mumbai said that he had not read about these delays. He said, “Had I known about these delays, it would have certainly made an impact on me.” Aamir Syed, another student said, “It would have probably spoiled my rhythm at the exam. I would have been concerned about my exam being error-free.”

Another aspirant, Sanket Yagnik told PaGaLGuY that it was good that he was not aware about these delays. It kept him insulated from all the negative talk and focus just on the exam.

Parents came along too

Outside the test centre, parents waited anxiously for their wards. Talking to PaGaLGuY, Ashwin Bhatia, uncle to CAT test taker Sushant Bhatia taking the exam in New Delhi said that he had taken a half day from office to accompany his nephew for the paper. However, since the students had not come out till 1 PM, he was apprehensive whether he would be able to reach office in time for his afternoon slot at office.

Another parent who had come from Nagpur and was waiting for his child outside Thakur College in Mumbai said that he did not read much about the negative talk on CAT in Nagpur and it was a good thing. He added that his daughter did not say anything about the disruptions in the exam.

A watchman outside a centre pulling down CAT 2012 banners

Party is over

At the end of the first slot exam, watchmen of many of the centres were seen removing the Prometric banners.

Talking to PaGaLGuY, one of the Prometric staff members (name withheld) from New Delhi said that the experience as a prometric employee had been a truly exhilerating though slightly exhausting one. “We used to reach the centre at 4 AM every morning and stay till 9 PM. It was our duty to make sure that the servers run smoothly, all the computers are operational and that candidates have a good experience,” he said.

What are they doing to relax now? The member said that one of their colleagues has his birthday today so a small party is arranged. “We will finish our works at the lab and have a small get together at the centre in the evening,” the Prometric employee said. However, this relief will be short lived. “From tomorrow, we will start work on preparing the labs for the next exam under the Prometric banner that is scheduled to begin from November 16, 2012,” the Prometric employee added.

Why last day?

Also, there wasn’t much strategy behind students taking the exam on the last day of the exam. Most students PaGaLGuY spoke to said that they did it just to get more preparation time. Sanket said that he wanted to take the exam on the last day as he wanted to know about the trends in the exam. He said, “My friends who had taken the exam in another slot had told me that Quant would be tough. Even I found Quant tougher than other sections.”

Jiya Mathur, a final year BA (Economics) from Delhi Uniersity, however, had something different to share. “November 6 is being celebrated as Hoyi, which is a Hindu festival. According to our culture, on this day mothers keep a fast for their childs well being and happiness. When I had been registering for the paper, my mother asked me to choose this day as she felt the day would bring me luck,” she said. Others like Sagar simply registered late and had no other slots available.

The temple near the CAT centre in Kandivali, Mumbai

Different strokes

Incidentally, CAT 2012 also had some unique sights on offer. In the group of parents waiting for the children to come out from Asia Pacific Institute of Managementin New Delhi, a couple had been accompanied by a brown-coloured cocker spaniel. Restless with the four-hour long wait, the couple could be seen walking the dog, entertaining it or reprimanding it from disturbing other presents present at the centre. Questioned about the reason behind bringing the furry creature along, Alpana Bajaj, businesswoman and mother to CAT test taker Shweta Bajaj said, “Rocket (the spaniel) is like a part of our family. We have our own business, and he even accompanies us to office every day.” She added that technically Rocket was Shwetas dog and there was no way the family could have left him at home on such an important day for their daughter.

A Lord Ganesha temple next to Thakur College of Science and Commerce, Mumbai was busy and buzzing with students who went to the temple before the exam. While some actually took darshan, the others preferred to sit on the benches inside the temple before the exam. The elephant god became the ‘CAT’ god for many test takers at this centre. Finally, he gets a well-deserved break today! No, wait, results are still to come!

Inputs from Sanjana Parikh