IIM Indore in partnership with newly appointed CAT 2014 testing agency TCS has scrapped the facility of buying CAT 2014 vouchers offline for registration. CAT 2013 provided dual facility of buying CAT vouchers off-line as well as online. No doubt the registration process in CAT 2013 was also online in CAT 2013 but the candidates with no credit card or net banking facility were not deprived of applying for CAT. The facility to buy the voucher off line from any of the designated banks as well as from IIMs was very much available along with the online purchase.
CAT 2014 Registration Process
Since entire registration process has changed to on-line system only for CAT 2014, aspirants are advised to follow the below given steps to register themselves in order to overcome any technical problem and complete the process of registration in time.
Step-1- Read the registration instructions well and understand the process of mock registration exercise before proceeding for registration for CAT 2014 on any date from August 6 to September 30, 2014.
Step-2- Keep the required information duly noted with you before entering the required data for CAT 2014 registration on line like details about date of birth, mail-id, qualification, percentage of marks, credit card/net banking details, work experience, preference for IIMs, Choice of 3 preferred test cities out of the 99 test cities (Available at the drop down menu).
Please remember there is no facility to schedule and choose the preferred test date and testing site. So be clear about the testing cities before entering the data for registration.
Step-3-Please enter all the requisite details creating your profile.
Step-4- The registration process has to be completed in the given time period, therefore please enter your credit card/net banking details cautiously & quickly without any error. Please ensure that you complete the registration process else it may be a problem that your money is deducted and registration still remains incomplete. At that time re-login and open the registration site and move accordingly.
For Latest updates on CAT 2014 exam Registration, keep a check on the below link for LIVE Updates: CAT 2014 Exam Notification Details
Impact of changes in CAT 2014 Registration process:
A. Need to have Access to Internet and Net banking
For CAT 2014 exam, all the aspirants need to register on line and have to pay the necessary registration fee on-line only. The dual facility does no longer exist. Despite being a technologically advanced process, the compulsion of buying CAT vouchers on-line only, may create any of the following problems for many aspirants who wish to appear in CAT 2014.
- CAT 2014 aspirants from small towns and rural areas may not possess computers and internets to buy vouchers online and register themselves.
- Number of CAT 2014 aspirants may also not have credit cards, net banking facility and might have to go searching cybercafés, computer centers and may fall into the hands of operators who may demand more to get their registration done by using their net banking facility.
- Access to Banks is available all over the country and vouchers from them could be purchased even by illiterates for their wards. Now the aspirants should either have the credit card or net banking facility or depend upon the mercy of some other person who can do the things for him or visit the cybercafé to shell out more money.
-Sometimes these cybercafés in small towns with erratic power supply are not equipped with right quality of UPS and have no power backup system. There could be chances that registration remains incomplete even after payment of registration fee in case of power failure or technical glitches.
B. No test scheduling
While entering the data in CAT 2014 registration on-line form, aspirants cannot schedule their test according to their preferred choice, a good facility withdrawn in CAT 2014 registration process. Now the choice is no more in the hands of the aspirant. Besides any of the 4 sessions can be allotted, so the facility of choosing the preferred session has also been withdrawn.
Now the problem after registration could be different as you will not be aware about the allotment of test city, centre as well as the date of taking CAT 2014 till you get the Admit card on October 16, 2014.
C. CAT Expert advice
On raising the query to Prof S K Agarwal, expert on CAT preparation whether scrapping the offline facility of buying vouchers could result in reduction of number of registrations for CAT 2014 and how to select the 3 test cities judiciously he opined that any aspirant preparing and gearing up to appear in CAT knows well and can understand well the on line registration process. Such candidates get connected to their peers and go for registration process in groups and are smart enough to get their job done even if hailing from any small town or rural area.
D. Negligible negative impact
In his view that could be the reason behind doing away with any off line buying of vouchers for registration as in making dual facility available many candidates will have to run first for buying the vouchers from some bank and later to get the registration done. Now it has become a single window process and in all probability will have negligible impact on number of CAT 2014 registrations. The testing agency will also have quick system generated updated data after each registration. So there is no need to collect the data from banks and reconcile it.
E. Think well before choosing the test cities
Prof Agarwal has also advised the CAT aspirants to give due thought before choosing the 3 preferred testing cities as any testing site in any of the three cities could be allotted. He further suggests the aspirants to choose smaller test cities as distances are less there and the farthest testing site in smaller city may not be very far. For example if you choose Metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai and are unknown to the city, the distances may go upto 30-40 Kms but if you select cities like Jaipur, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida, you can stay at a nearby place at an affordable price and can reach the testing site in a few minutes.
For Latest updates on CAT 2014 exam Registration, keep a check on the below link for LIVE Updates: CAT 2014 Exam Notification Details
Related articles:
CAT 2014 Exam notification; Exam on Nov 16 & 22; Registration opens Aug 6 2014
CAT 2014 Exam Date: CAT exam will be held on two Days, Random selection of CAT test Centre
CAT 2014 exam updates: 10 Big changes in this year CAT 2014 exam
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