IIMs may take CAT global

Ahmedabad: India’s common admission test (CAT) for premier B-schools may soon go global. The disclosure comes as the first successful and glitch-free edition of CAT concluded today. The CAT committee — the body responsible for conducting the test — also plans to make it available throughout the year.

CAT 2010, which began on October 27, was held at 128 labs in 78 centres across 33 cities. A total of 204,267 candidates registered for CAT 2010 for admissions in 10 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and over 150 other B-schools. Results will be declared on January 12, 2011.

"We have been contacted by some B-schools from the Middle East and Sri Lanka, who want us to conduct CAT for them. While a new committee will be formed next year for CAT 2011, we will make strong recommendations to take the test offshore, as it will enhance the CAT brand," Himanshu Rai, the convener for CAT 2010, told Business Standard.

According to Rai, taking CAT offshore would also mean an enhancement of best practices. "It is already been a challenging job for Prometric to conduct CAT for us, but it has been very successful this year. However, if and when we take CAT offshore, we will learn more about global best practices in conducting such tests," added Rai.

Conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in association with Prometric and partners Everonn and MeritTrac, CAT was made computer-based for the first time in 2009. However, the test was marred by technical glitches, resulting in thousands of candidates being unable to take the test in its controversial first edition last year.

Following this, the new committee took several steps to ensure a smooth test by, among other things, handing over labs at least a fortnight prior to the test and quarantining all computers. The IIMs and Prometric also changed the channel partner from NIIT in 2009 to Everonn and MeritTrac in 2010. Added to that, the testing window was extended from 10 days last year to 20 days this year.

Such has been the success in conducting the test this year, that the committee is expediting the process of making CAT available throughout the year. "CAT is still a computer-based test and not a computer adaptive test like GMAT, which can be conducted throughout the year. But we have expedited the process and hope to see an all-year CAT being conducted by 2012 or latest by 2013," said Rai.