Delhi NCR candidates are yet to get the option to choose 4 preferred CAT test cities to appear in CAT 2018. As was disseminated by MBAUniverse.com on August 9, 2018, there are 10 important cities including New Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mathura in Delhi NCR which are ‘No More’ specified as CAT 2018 test centres and are clubbed as single test city – Delhi NCR. Now it has become difficult for the candidates from these big cities to exercise option of choosing their 4 test cities in order of preference.
The issue was raised before CAT 2018 exam convener Dr Sumanta Basu who has assured to
provide a better test taking experience to the Delhi NCR candidates during examination. Let us understand what are the problems in making choice of preferred CAT test centres 2018 in Delhi NCR and the solution proposed by the CAT Convener.
Problems in Choosing Delhi NCR as Test City
Delhi NCR candidates applying for CAT 2018 could face following problems in making a choice of CAT Test Centres:
- Delhi NCR had 10 CAT exam cities individually specified in CAT Application form till last year. They are Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal, Sonepat, Bahadurgarh. This year there is only one test city – Delhi NCR.
- Candidates have no option to choose any other test city except Delhi NCR. Moreover the names of the CAT test centres 2018 available in Delhi NCR are no where specified.
- You have no clue after filling in Delhi NCR as your first preferred CAT exam center 2018 in the CAT 2018 application form, which city out of 10-11 in Delhi NCR would be allotted to you in your CAT Admit Card.
- According to CAT 2018 exam convener, “We will try to minimise the travel time by seeing the communication address of the candidate subject to capacity constraint.” It implies that you could be allotted a CAT 2018 test centre available near to your communication address, if possible. However, there are thousands of candidates who fill in their permanent communication address but may like to appear in CAT 2018 at one of the 10 preferred CAT test centres in Delhi NCR. But there is no choice available for them to choose the preferred test city for CAT 2018 in Delhi NCR.
- Accordingly, if you live in Noida and are allotted Gurgaon or Mathura in Delhi NCR as your CAT exam Centre 2018, you may have to travel a long distance say 50 to 100 Kms on the CAT exam day.
- No candidate could know how he/she would get the test city in Delhi NCR. For example a candidate located at Ghaziabad-Delhi border or Ghaziabad-Noida border may prefer Delhi or Noida as test city, but the communication address shows his location as Ghaziabad and he/she would remain in dark till the last minute about the test city being allotted to him. Another example is that Mathura in U.P. and Noida in U.P. both are the parts of Delhi NCR but the distance is more than 100 Kms., similarly Ghaziabad to Gurgaon or Noida to Gurgaon is again a great distance.
- It could result in wastage of time for the simple reason that individual CAT 2018 Test Cities in Delhi NCR have not been specified either on the CAT 2018 website or on the ‘Test Cities’ page of the CAT 2018 Application Form.
CAT Convener Responds
On raising the issue before the CAT 2018 exam convener Dr Sumanta Basu, faculty at IIM Calcutta, with the request to restore the choice of individual test centres in Delhi NCR, the CAT convener has responded to MBAUniverse.com, “The concerned authority has deliberated on this issue once this change request was received. There were some operational issues that the execution team faced internally because of segmenting one city into several sub-cities.”
The CAT Convener proposes following measures to resolve this issue:
Test Centres With Better Infrastructure
According to CAT Convener, “Our primarily intent is to provide a better experience to the candidates during the examination by offering them centres with better infrastructure and security.”
It implies that the candidates would be allotted well managed CAT test centres which may not encounter any technical glitches during the examination and are located at a convenient and apploachable place in Delhi NCR.
Minimum Travel Time
CAT Convener also proposes to minimise the travel time to the CAT test centre for the Delhi NCR candidates. This will be done by allotting the CAT test centre nearest to the candidate’s communication address. According to him, “Also we will try to minimise the travel time by seeing the communication address of the candidate subject to capacity constraint.”
Co-operation Solicited from the Candidates
CAT convener does not rule out the limitations in this process of CAT exam centre allotment and therefore seeks cooperation from the candidates. He said, “I understand that this has certain limitations and I request candidates to extend their cooperation in this matter.”
Confusion and Clarity
CAT 2018 Application Process got opened on August 8, 2018 at 10.30AM on IIMCAT.ac.in, the official CAT exam website. Hundreds of candidates, who tried to complete their Application on August 8 itself, got stuck due to the fact that there was no choice of CAT exam centres 2018 in Delhi NCR in the CAT application form.
Many of the CAT 2018 applicants, on the verge of making payment of CAT 2018 exam fee stopped short of this last step and have informed that they are waiting for the clarity from CAT centre on this issue in the wake of MBAUniverse.com raising the problem to CAT Convener.
As such the CAT 2018 Applications, half filled up by number of Delhi NCR candidates are lying incomplete for want of some clarity on the choice of test centres in Delhi NCR.
MBAUniverse.com is hopeful that with these steps taken by CAT 2018 exam convener will resolve the issue and will provide good test taking experience on November 25, 2018.
The CAT 2018 Application process will close on September 19, 2018 at 5PM. The CAT 2018 exam is scheduled on Sunday November 25, 2018 in two sessions. IIMs’ CAT is the largest and most reputed MBA entrance exam and is the gateway to 20 IIMs, FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI Manipal, NITIE, IITs and hundreds of other most reputed MBA colleges in India. Delhi NCR contributes around 25 thousand registrations in CAT.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2018
