CAT may get paper-less from this year

The Common Admission Test (CAT) could be a paper-less examination from this year. The IIMs are working on how to do away with the existing paper-based examination by having the test through computers from the 2009-10 session. “It is a very huge task to continue the examination in the existing pattern of writing the test on paper, which takes a lot of time for evaluation also. The test through computer-based system will make this task much easier," IIM Lucknow Director Prof Devi Singh told PTI. About 2.5 lakh students appear in the CAT, while the number is increasing by 15 to 20 per cent every year. Given the increase in number of students, the task will get tougher over the years. The computer-based examination is seen as a better system in which the students will write the answers in the specified computers at the examination centres. However, the examination will not be on-line. It will reduce the chance of question paper leak as there is not much scope for manual handling of question papers. Students qualifying the CAT are eligible for admission into the IIMs and 40 other leading B-Schools in the country.