I Reckon Life

Friday, December 11, 2009

Prometric to CAT Students

I got the following message from them the other day.
from    DoNotReply@prometric.com
date    Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 17:25
subject    A Message from Prometric
mailed-by    prometric.com
   
Dear Candidate,

At Prometric our first commitment is to provide every candidate with an excellent exam experience. To us, that means establishing a fair test environment and creating an exam that allows all candidates to demonstrate their true capabilities. Due to technical difficulties at a few centres some of you were unable to take the 2009 Common Admission Test (CAT). We know how important this test is to you, and we regret the circumstances that occurred this year. The administration of the exam may have fallen short of your expectations, as it did ours.

We empathize with the candidates who have not been able to complete the test despite the rescheduling efforts and extension of the testing period. To date, we have been able to contact and reschedule exams for more than 17,000 affected candidates, and majority of them have since completed their test. We are in the process of identifying candidates who may have experienced pre-mature termination of the test, or were unable to test within the testing window, and we will contact them to schedule a retake.

Please note that we are conducting a rigorous forensic analysis to ensure that every test result is valid and appropriate. Our work will not be done until our review of the situation is complete, the problems are identified, a plan is in place to ensure they don’t happen again, every candidate has taken the CAT, and all of the results are validated.

Thank you for registering for, and being part of the historic launch of the computer-based CAT. Computer-based testing has a transformative impact on education by expanding access, enhancing the test development process and making results more representative of a student’s capabilities.

For the more than 2.15 lakh candidates who have successfully completed their exams, we would like to say congratulations on being among the first test-takers of the computer-based CAT. This is a transition year for the CAT and we appreciate the patience you have shown. We understand that some of you may have had a less-than-satisfactory experience and again, we apologize. Every issue that has occurred has been noted and will form the basis of an improvement plan.

To your parents, we would like to assure them that we will conduct a thorough review and ensure that every candidate has been given an equal opportunity for the CAT.

We wish each and every one of you all the best and thank you once again for being part of the CAT 2009.

Sincerely, 
CAT Candidate Care Support
Prometric Testing Pvt. Ltd.
http://www.prometric.com/iim-cat/contactus


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The message I think I would have written, had I been at the helm of affairs would be:

Welcome to the real world! Welcome to LIFE aka the bitch. Its never fair and its never unfair in your favour, as Calvin puts it. We all will always have ups and downs where only ups require your effort. The downs happen without you doing anything! But we accept the reluctantly and try to work our best to undo them or to bypass them. The only true skill in life is performing under pressure/stress--expected (of exam) and more so unexpected (of externalities).

We're sorry you could not give the CAT exam comfortably and our system added to unexpected stress. But then what do you expect a manager to handle? Market, so-called luck, customers, employees, production line, competitors, and (may I dare add) wives and children(!), always keep throwing such unexpected surprises your way. As we've said and we all know in our hearts the best we can do is either live with them or bypass them... or die(!) but you weren't thinking about it, were you?!

Normalization is a shitty concept we create to make us all feel protected from the unfairness going around in life. Normalization is for sissies. Be a man and accept what has come your way. This is what it feels like when shit hits the fan.

So welcome to the real world! We hope you won't break under the stress. In case you do... well that will just improve the gene pool for humans. Good luck fuking life and getting fuked in return!

That said, we don't expect IIM folks to give us the responsibility of conducting CAT next year. If they do we'd be happy to declare that we took the best B-schools in India for a BIG ride! Thanks for the charity you all did for us with your 1400 bucks in exam fees.

\m/
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See why I am not at the helm of affairs! ;-)

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