CAT 2015 Result Is the score normalization process holding it back? A different exam posing hindrance in declaration

Updated on January 6, 2015

CAT 2015 test takers are gradually getting impatient and are raising the query 'what is holding back the CAT 2015 result'

Score normalization process for CAT 2015 has to honour its claim on 3 aspects-Fairness, Equity and comparison of performances across the 2 test sessions

Worried CAT 2015 test takers are gradually getting impatient and are raising the query ‘what is holding back the CAT 2015 result-is it score normalization process since it was a different CAT with non-MCQs or the result has got into a web of technical glitches’. MBAUniverse.com has been receiving such queries and thousands of CAT 2015 takers are enquiring whether IIM Ahmedabad is going to declare the result direct without informing about date of declaration of CAT 2015 result. IIM Ahmedabad the CAT 2015 convening IIM is yet to respond on the exact date of result declaration and it appears that the score normalization process might be consuming more time before arriving at the final result.

In order to present an absolutely transparent and glitch free result IIM Ahmedabad appears to be bending its back on putting all the checks and balances in processing the CAT 2015 result due to which the result date has not been declared yet. Not leaving any room for error & Omission on score normalization could be the very reason on holding back the announcement for CAT 2015 result declaration date. The silence could mean that you will receive the CAT 2015 score card instead of any pre-announcement on CAT 2015 result declaration.

The aim to keep the CAT 2015 result free of any defects might also be delaying the announcement of CAT 2015 result declaration date.

A few days ago Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, convener CAT 2015 & faculty at IIM Ahmedabad said “CAT 2015 result should be sometime before second week of January 2016.” However all the activities are focused on score normalization process which is different in CAT 2015 than in earlier CAT exams mainly because of the fact that there should not be any mismatch and zero error result for CAT 2015 could be declared.

It happened in past
Candidates might remember that a few issues on score equating and normalization process came up with the declaration of CAT 2013 result although later on the High Court dismissed the filed legal cases. CAT Centre 2015 is very much keen that no such issue should come up and create any problem to the CAT 2015 convened by IIM Ahmedabad in partnership with the testing agency TCS.

Award of scores in CAT 2015
The scoring pattern is very clear and has not posed any problem during the calculation and tabulation process of marking in CAT 2015. Every correct answer in each of the 3 sections has been awarded 3 marks and every wrong answer on MCQs has been penalized with one third negative marks. The difference in the scoring pattern in CAT 2015 and earlier CAT exams is that for the first time in CAT 2015 Non-MCQs have been introduced. The wrong answers to non-MCQs have not been penalized with negative marking, hence a different process has been adopted to arrive at the score normalization.

If you got 4 correct answers to MCQs, you have got 12 marks but if you got one wrong out of them, you have got 9-1=8 marks. However for wrong answers to Non MCQs no such deduction would be made. CAT 2015 had 28 Non-MCQ type questions out of total 100 questions. The process adopted by IIM Ahmedabad to arrive at the final scores is very transparent and cannot be marred by any sort of technical problem.

3 aspects of Score Normalization
In fact the score normalization process for CAT 2015 has to honour its claim on 3 aspects- Fairness, Equity and comparison of performances across the 2 test sessions in CAT 2015 exam. Not only this, but also the Normalization process has to be transparent one so that it shouldn’t be challenged by any one. Besides the process should justify the outcome and no CAT 2015 taker should suffer from it.

CAT Centre 2015 says “In order to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances of the candidates across different test sessions, the scores of the candidates shall be subjected to a process of Normalization. The Normalization process to be implemented shall adjust for location and scale differences of score distributions across different forms. After normalization across different forms the scores shall be further normalized across different sections and the scaled scores obtained by this process shall be converted into percentiles for purposes of shortlisting.”

The score normalization process which appears to be on the lines of GATE score normalization pattern is slightly different than what was adopted by CAT in earlier exams.

According to CAT Centre 2015 “The process of Normalization is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multiple Forms and is similar to those being adopted in other large educational selection tests conducted in India such as Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).”

In all probability the CAT 2015 result might be declared between January 7 to 9, 2016 by IIM Ahmedabad as announced in the press release and advertisement for CAT 2015 to release the result in the second week of January 2016.