CAT 2009: Convenor says evaluation system necessary

The convenor of the online Common Admission Test 2009 today asserted that the much-criticised evaluation system adopted for the test is needed and that the difficulty levels of over 20 slots are similar,even though the tests were not identical.

The convenor of the online Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 today asserted that the much-criticised evaluation system adopted for the test is needed and that the difficulty levels of over 20 slots are similar,even though the tests were not identical.

CAT convenor and IIM-Ahmedabad professor Satish Deodhar told reprorters: There are a lot of perceptions going around which (are) not necessarily true as far as the Psychometric Equivalence method is concerned.

The method is being used by Prometric and the IIMs to standardise various slots. It has been questioned by the candidates who feel it is impossible to judge the difficulty level of any one slot as candidates perceptions may vary.

Others had contended that there was no need for this method and the IIMs should have formulated tests with equal difficulty levels.

In a press release,Deodhar stated: While IIM faculty have come up with tests of similar difficulty levels,the different tests are certainly not identical tests. Therefore,standardisation is needed.

Raw scores really dont make sense, he added,explaining only the scaled scores would be released.

He added that re-evaluation is a possibility if the candidates think there is a genuine reason for this and it would be considered if it was inquired through an RTI.

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Reacting to reports of RTIs flooding the institute,Deodhar said RTIs regarding CAT are a regular feature every year.

Deodhar also maintained that the IIMs would prefer to retain their intellectual rights over the questions in the tests and so would not make public information about the answer keys,as requested by many candidates.

He also reaffirmed his conviction that the online tests should continue in the coming years even though there are more glitches than expected because the pencil-and-paper tests of previous years would be unviable as the number of candidates increase every year.

He,however,said directors of all the IIMs would hold a review meeting towards the end of April to take a final call on this.

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Giving clarifications on delaying CAT results from mid-February to February-end,Deodhar said: We wanted to make absolutely sure that there were no mistakes since this is the first time and we were extremely cautious.

He also said that they waited for all the IIMs to prepare their lists,which is traditionally announced simultaneously with the results.

He added that the results were also delayed as retests were conducted due to the initial glitches.

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CAT 2009: Convenor says evaluation system necessary

The convenor of the online Common Admission Test 2009 today asserted that the much-criticised evaluation system adopted for the test is needed and that the difficulty levels of over 20 slots are similar,even though the tests were not identical.

The convenor of the online Common Admission Test 2009 today asserted that the much-criticised evaluation system adopted for the test is needed and that the difficulty levels of over 20 slots are similar,even though the tests were not identical.