And the funniest part is the clichéd answers given by these “Gyaani babas” in defense to the questions raised over the authenticity or the success rate of those projections- “Actually the projections are not 100% correct but they are fairly indicative of your actual percentiles as they are based on the analysis and detailed study of the statistical data of previous years’ CAT takers’ performance. Our algorithm is flexible and dynamic and blahh blaah blaah continues the rant.” My very first question to these fortune tellers would be “So you actually mean to say that you were given the elite access to the database of Prometric for conducting your “detailed analysis” of the past years’ performance or did Prometric conduct some workshops to enlighten you about their normalization algorithm so that in future you could take the burden off their shoulders by calculating the same by yourselves???” We all know that percentile is largely a function of how others have performed (along with many other factors) in the same slot (to determine the cutoff I presume) and in the other slots (to scale the scores accordingly). So I would like to ask the predictors that “How on the earth do you project expected %iles on basis of some X attempts and Y accuracy of attempts, that too after the very first slot of the very first date of the CAT window??” On the basis of “detailed analysis” of the past years’ performance!! Is it so?? You mean to say that the remaining CAT takers’ IQ and performance in the coming slots will dance to the tunes of past years’ results and performance??? After all percentiles is a relative stuff. It is beyond a human mind’s capability to predict the IQ level or performance of approx 1-2lakh before hand or even after the exam. So how can you even dream of predicting percentile?
One of the clichéd queries of the CAT aspirants before taking the test is “How many correct attempts do I need to make in order to score X %ile??” Well you see it’s similar to asking a woman “How many pair of dresses and shoes would be needed to satisfy you??” The answer to which is CAN NEVER BE DETERMINED; and same goes with answer to the above query !!!
(To be continued.. )