CAT 2009 Servers Crash in India on First Day!
2009/11/28 - By Kurt Avish - 2,519 views
Today is CAT 2009 first day in India and for the first day of the online exam itself, servers in Bangalore, Chennai, Bhopal and Lucknow have crashed! India being a very advanced country when it comes to technology really needs to stop making fun of itself like this.
CAT which means Common Admission Test is an exam which must be done by MBA aspirants aiming the top Business Schools in India. The exam has always been a paper and pencil one. However for this year, India decided to introduce an online exam for CAT!
A majority of students were not really convinced of this amateur online system and finally it showed on the first day itself how AMATEUR their whole network is! On the first day itself servers crashed due to the huge number of people participating in these tests. In a nutshell, this means bad planning and poor equipments!
Update: Apparently the whole network for this exam was set up by an American company “Prometric”. And we wonder why to allocate this job to a US company when India itself can do this work!
Many students prepared their exam having in mind that the exam will be a paper-pen one and only 6 months ago they were informed that the exam will be an online one. Finally many students were not able to do so as the system itself was unavailable due to server crash.
The number of students for CAT exam has also decreased this year in India due to the SUDDEN introduction of this online exam. Many poor student were mentally preparing for the normal pen and paper exam. However after hearing that the exam is online, some did not move forward for it.
And as the cherry of it all, these server crash is a sign of being a total clown on the international level. In the coming days we’ll say “India can’t even do an online exam”. (Which is not true but is what many people out of India will think!)
Re-Edited:Kurt. We apologise for some of the previous innacurate information which we got before publishing this article.
Loading ...
C’mon..it just the fault of the CAT authorities… India can have an ol exam..havent u heard of BITSAT??? BITS Pilani conducts it every yr….
[Reply to this comment]
You really don’t know much about the CAT and India.
Last year there were 265 thousand student, this year there are 240 thousand. Huge drop of 15000, only 15000 poor student in India that’s new.. Also who told you that a candidate need to have internet connection, there are designated online centers, Nobody can take the exam from home.
Also the numbers of students affected today are 200, of the 24000 who gave their exam today. I guess this minor hiccup wouldn’t even had happened if we would have done it all by ourselves and not with the help of American Prometrics, whose responsibilty was to maintain servers.
[Reply to this comment]
Abé séki bizin ré-T-nir la dans c ki quand mem, ‘a failure to prepare is a preparation to fail’ ek ossi ki fauD pas fer 1 kitsoz pou ki ban dimoune ‘with long purses’ seulement kapav profiT. Démocratiquement parlant, li bien vilain.
[Reply to this comment]
Hey, you cannot say like that “India can’t even do an online exam”. it is for the first time we are experiencing the online system and we need to wait for days to correct it,
and i agree in some point of view where poor ppl cannot afford to internet connect and lose their hopes for new cat.
But, overall IIM’s will do better than what we expect from them
[Reply to this comment]
Sunnoffabitch, Indians have outsourced the test to an American Company – Prometric. Thought of giving some jobs to them this time.. Turned out, they’re no better than Indian 10th Graders. Indian IT Companies could have done it better..
[Reply to this comment]
Do you guys even investigate anything before publishing garbage?
Firstly, An American firm, Prometric, has developed the computer system for CAT. Its not as if India is doing anything about it.
Secondly there is no Indian Govt say in CAT exam pattern or how they are coduncted. It is solely decided by the IIMs.
Thirdly what rubbish is this? [[Many poor student were preparing for the normal pen and paper exam. However after hearing that the exam is online, many did not move forward due to unavailability of internet.]] This test is being conducted in allocated test centers which has the infrastructure it needs? How is “unavailability of Internet ” going to hamper taking up CAT by anyone?
[Reply to this comment]
Well Sir
The fact is that the online test of CA is being conducted by PROMETRIC, an AMERICAN company………. so actually we are laughing at this company because it underestimated the situation in India…… CAT is a diff business from GRE or GMAT…….. I am waiting for the response from Prometric in this regard
[Reply to this comment]
Who the hell are you to make such claims !
let me tell you that exam was organized by a US agency. This just proves that US authorities are not able to create online exams.
So no fault of India. Indians have been conducting CAT exams over 33 years. You should also remember that technology always poses a challenge.
Do you or your country has ever conducted a test of 240000 people online ??? have you ever imagined it !
Coming to GMAT which is also conducted by the same agency, it is way too different from CAT. At a time, i believe that GMAT is taken by just 300-400 people per day per country !!
So do not blame India. We are proud of our Indianism and we are proud to be indians. Do you know that we have such a large population that our population in a single city is 3 times that of some countries ! This is India. And if 200 people out of 25000 faced prob, that is just 0.4 % of people facing the issue.
So, dont make mockery of my nation. Better do something useful !
Ankit Arora´s last blog ..Is my story similar to yours ?
[Reply to this comment]
Nikitt S Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 8:31 PM
@Ankit Arora, ORLY son? You meant your population in a single city is 3 times that of some countries and they have 3 time less food and cloth to wear than the other countries? You also meant your population in a single city is 3 times that of some countries and your government care 3 times less for your people safety that Pakistani terrorists come and kill our brothers so easily?
[Reply to this comment]
Abhinav Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 8:40 PM
@Nikitt S,
population in a city is three times less than that of cities in some other countries and they have 3 times less food and cloth to wea… wea… weahak…wahk……
Please dont attempt CAT!!!!
Nobody can understand your language!!!!!
[Reply to this comment]
Well, its one side of the news. The CAT is being conducted by Prometric, the same company which conducts GMAT and GRE i guess. I guess it will bring the end of the 40 million dollar contract.
RIP Prometric !!!
[Reply to this comment]
India can do everything. Doesn’t India conducrt tests like BITSAT,GRE,GMAT,TOEFL online?
This thing happened because of overload. And we all know India is a country of expanding population.
[Reply to this comment]
Dude, u serious when u say “India can’t do an online exam”. ??
Seems like u are high on alcohol or something!!
1. Out of 300-400 odd centers, 8-10 crashed… big deal?
2. Exam is conducted by Prometric. And any Indian involvement in this is zero. Apart from the fact that we make the papers, coz generally ppl like you are too dumb to have any aptitude!!!
3. BITS Pilani conducts online exam for some 2lakh people every year. BITSAT never failed. This is what I call a true Indian.
Goonjan Mall
BITS, Pilani
[Reply to this comment]
ronit Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 3:10 PM
@Goonjan, who told u there r 300-400 centres infact there r only 102 centres in 32 cities
[Reply to this comment]
I think Promeric must be more ashamed of its services when they Boast of conducting the GRE ,TOEFL an all exams for the hole year and they could not manage to handle only 10 days for CAT 2010
[Reply to this comment]
CAT is different from GRE/GMAT or any western type test as the test-takers are very hige is number. So, it’s going to be different. Americans don’t have an idea of India’s population and the fact that servers have crashed indicates that Americans are very ignorant lot.
[Reply to this comment]
Thats the height of being vitriolic… What has INDIA to do in it? This exam is not being conducted by union government, its by IIMs an autonomous university and also the test are conducted online by prometric an American firm.
Anyways glitches happen when u come out for the first time with something and I am very much sure that premier institutes like IIMs will learn something from this and correct in the upcoming days…
[Reply to this comment]
“Many students even paid much money for the internet access as they do not have internet connection at home to be able to participate in this exam. Finally most were not able to do so as the system itself were unavailable due to server crash.”
Just wanted to tell that its not necessary to have internet connection at home to be able to participate in CAT coz examination centers have been alloted and a large number of students who do not have internet connection at home are appearing for the online CAT.
Secondly, few small mistakes and failures in the beginning are not a big deal. Even the OCO satellite of NASA crashed into ocean just 17 minutes after the lift. So few failures during the first online CAT is not a very abnormally funny thing. And, at many more centers CAT’s first slot examinations have been conducted smoothly. India doesn’t need to prove its efficiency to the world through a CAT exam. It has always proved itself over the time in several aspects.
[Reply to this comment]
Well the chaos situation created in India is not due to the mismanagement of IIMs or any other Indian authority but because of the negligence and underestimation of an American company names Prometric which conducts GRE and GMAT so its not an “amateur online system”.
And I would like to comment on one more statement made which was “Many students even paid much money for the internet access as they do not have internet connection at home to be able to participate in this exam.”
So let me clarify that the money paid by the students was not because the didn’t have internet connection because its irrelevant. Even if you have internet connection at your home, you can’t appear in the examination at your home. You have to be in an invigilated environment so that you don’t use any illegal methods. That was a mandatory application fee which everyone has to pay who wants to appear in the examination.
[Reply to this comment]
You people don’t know anything of India. India is unique in its own way and has her own problems like population overload. India can do everything, this problem is by a American company, nothing Indian of it.
[Reply to this comment]
Most of us have internet connection at home. We are not allowed to appear for CAT from home and are being made to pay money for centers just to ensure examination opacity, nothing else.
So, just don’t think India can’t afford this or that. And also, this mistake is not due to IIMs. Actually IIMs made a mistake in consulting an US company,Prometric. How would ever a US company know about India’s problems? So, it did not keep enough servers ready, thinking it would manage in the same way as GRE/GMAT which have far fewer cadidates.
So, the fools responsible are the US people, who think everything in this world is based on US model.
[Reply to this comment]
Out of 102 centres, if 11 fail that roughly amounts to 10%. This is indeed a huge ratio, but Prometric alone is to blame for it.
Prakhar Agrawal´s last blog ..CAT 2009 Update 2: The World Laughs at INDIA
[Reply to this comment]
well stop being a chauvinist and we all know that Indian got IQ’s much higher than americans n most R&D teams around the world have Indian brains but its just that we mind our own affair
[Reply to this comment]
i was scheduled to write cat 2moro.but inspite of the reassurances given by the iims tat tis amateur oline test a success on the first place,its deemed a failure.lol
[Reply to this comment]
Indians are good at defending India but really they are good for nothing. Only Bla Bla Bla… When you go there then only you see how backward they are.
What online exams they can hold. It will definitely crash and crash again.
They can only show off and nothing more.
dr reddy´s last blog ..Andhra Day Celebrations in Mauritius
[Reply to this comment]
Abhinav Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 8:27 PM
@dr reddy, (I highly doubt you are a doctor though!!!!)
surprising comments….Being in a country which survives mostly on tourism,
you have made a really bold comment!!!!
India is the economically second fastest growing country (china is the first) ….
You have left this country i guess!!!! be there…. dont even make a comment on us… we will bring this country to a place much above without you morons…..
[Reply to this comment]
Vasco Reply:
December 1st, 2009 at 11:44 AM
@Abhinav,
hoho dear …the truth is you may get more money than us ,…then …so what!!
we are happier than you are guys…..
since we have a lot of tourist we get to have tons of sex with them ( jk)
Vasco´s last blog ..Re: Happy Birthday Smeet aka Smeeessssssssssssss!!!
[Reply to this comment]
Maybe you Indians will even say that you went to the moon in 1958 and we Americans did it with 10 years of lateness!
[Reply to this comment]
No need to laugh at us(India)…. Whatever happened today is an issue!!! but not very big!!!! Its blown out of proportion…..
People who are mocking the abilities of Indian brains….- Try spending an hour solving few questions normally meant as a foundation for CAT preperation….
You will get to know what we are made off!!!!!
[Reply to this comment]
Vasco Reply:
November 29th, 2009 at 12:11 AM
@Abhinav Sarja,
well we have SAT and Cambridge HSC(even france’s “Bacaleaureat”) …in mauritius …we speak english and french …. a lot of us speak either italian or spanish (some even speak German)
well i’ve seen some question of CAT (i’m not sure if its the right one though) but well it seems we Mauritian could take those question
but i’m not sure …the best will be someone bring up a question CAT and we’ll see…if we fail ,bad luck ,we pass ,good luck!
what i can say is that westerns tend to get the idea that indian are Rote learner ..meaning they learn all by heart…..come ..even in films it is depicted like that !
Vasco´s last blog ..Re: SKYPE
[Reply to this comment]
Fire ….it’s the war ……Indians Vs Mauritians……
ok what i have to say is Imo India is very much able to do Online exams…great ….
but why give it to An american company when india itself could have done …what happened is That SOMEONE has sincerely tried to steal money the way it always happen in India and Mru too!!
no big deal about that ! (its so common)
Anyway …if the exam fails then it will be retaken by the student …..i don’t see Indian pride being killed on international community because a stuff like that happen ….
how can a country criticize the exam failure (and claiming india suck at web ) when they themselves haven’t even step up in the web !
Come guys ..i know all you guy’s blood have boiled but please the post have been modified …so no flaming please
Vasco´s last blog ..Re: SKYPE
[Reply to this comment]
Well Abhinav you are a good patriot. I like it. No doubt you love your country like most Indians. But you have no manners you have to admit. That is why people like you get problems everywhere( like the problems students got in Australia recently. I am not an Indian but I visited most of the cities and many places, institutions and what not. No doubt Indian brains are really Brains but they have been formed in America and elsewhere. I am 100% Mauritian and Mauritius has no resources but tries to be the No. 1 in the African continent in spite of the fact that it became independent only in 1968 unlike India which got its independence in 1947. I am not boasting of my country. You just have to compare Singapore, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and other countries in the region and you will know what progress they have achieved in a short span of time. India has the second largest population, first is China. But see the way the Chinese are progressing when they are being boycotted by America and its allies. It is a pleasure to walk in the streets of Shanghai and other cities in China. The Chinese never boast of themselves and behave in a much better way. You have a lot to learn. Start now. It is never late.
dr reddy´s last blog ..Proximity with a Spiritual Master
[Reply to this comment]