CAT scorecard of over 80 students have been inflated

The Common Admission Test (CAT) scorecard of more than 80 candidates who appeared for the exam have been inflated, will affect the credibility of the exam in the eyes of future aspirants. CAT exam score is used by prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and many other B-Schools for enrolling students. IIM-Kozhikode (IIM-K), which convened CAT 2012, said it noticed the tampering through a tip-off. “Acting on the basis of a complaint, a comparison of CAT 2012 scores available on the website with the master database of the scores (those received from Prometric, which conducts the test) shows that scores of 80 examinees have been tampered/altered, resulting in inflation of scores for these examinees.” Only non-IIM institutes using the score are likely to be affected.

CAT 2012 was conducted from 11th October to 6th November, 2012. Over 160 B-Schools accept CAT scores to enrol students. Besides, the admission process in many leading B-schools is over, and just few schools are still enrolling students.

IIM-K Director Debashis Chatterjee said a panel has been established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to look into the matter. IIM-K had filed a First Information Report on 15th June, 2013 and stated, "The incident has also been reported to the police, which is investigating."

Some B-Schools that accept CAT score to enrol students felt cheated by the IIMs as they were not informed of the development immediately. Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management and Technology said, “IIMs were supposed to inform us. We trust CAT. It is not a run-of-the-mill examination. This is disappointing. IIMs should take responsibility for this goof-up. We are a member of CAT. We pay them lakhs (of rupees) every year to source students."

BIMTECH said it had enrolled 10 students with the manipulated scores, and had cancelled the admission of one so far. Every year it enrols 300 students using CAT scores every year.

IIM-K said exam was conducted and evaluated and entrusted with Prometric. "As per the practice in the previous years, the test results were published on the website, www.catiim.in, which is managed and hosted by M/s Web Weavers."

IIMs mentioned that they used the master database for short-listing candidates, the admission process has in no way been compromised in any of the IIMs. IIM-K added, "Non-IIM institutes that have a formal relationship for the use of CAT scores are being alerted and scores from the master database are being provided to them. The IIMs are reviewing the process by which data are managed and published externally. The rest of the examinees' scores on the website, www.catiim.in, were found intact and matching with the master database received from Prometric."

The CAT 2012 convenor and faculty member at IIM-K said the publication of the result on the site is being done by the third party for three years. He further added, "If we don't take any immediate action, the CAT image could take a hit."

IIM-K said that they have sent the timely alerts to institutions regarding the CAT scores. IIMs are mapping the process of CAT scores from the time the institutes get there from Prometric till the scored are passed on to the non IIM- B-Schools. Rohit Kapoor, the current convenor for CAT 2013 and a faculty member at IIM-Indore said, "Once we received the scores from Prometric, we had put it up on the website, which is managed by a third-party vendor. It is on the website that the tampering happened. We are trying to find the gap between receiving of the scores and passing it on to non-IIM B-schools. We are, however, proactive and ready to help these institutes, since we have nothing to hide."