Many aspirants for the competitive Common Admission Test (CAT), including those unable to take the online computerised test in the past three days due to technical snags, were left in the lurch on the fourth consecutive day Tuesday, and blamed lax communication and management by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

The competitive CAT exam that went online for the first time this year ran into trouble again when a computer crash stalled the exam at centres in cities like Lucknow, Delhi and Bhopal.

'Students at Delhi, Bhopal and Lucknow have called us saying they could not give the exam. Many of them are the rescheduled candidates,' Ulhas Vairagkar, director of the TIME coaching institute told IANS.

Candidates outside the SMS college centre at Lucknow said they were facing a harrowing time, coming to different re-alloted centres time and again with no guarantee that they would be able to take the test.

'I was to give the CAT in the morning slot two days back. After waiting for over two hours, we were told that because of technical problems there would be no exam. Late in the evening I got an SMS saying I should go to another institute. I went yesterday (Monday) but again the CAT exam was suspended,' Neeraj Prasad, a CAT candidate, told IANS over the phone from Lucknow.

He complained that the entire batch of around 60 candidates had been going to re-designated centres for the past two days but were unable to take the exam.

'Yesterday (Monday) I got an e-mail that I should come to the centre in the morning. Today I come and its the same problem. We find out only after we travel for hours and reach the centre. They (organisers) take for granted that candidates have all the facilities and time to keep coming to the centres again and again. They aren't even apologetic!' Prasad added.

Management aspirants have been in a frenzy ever since computers crashed in over 40 centres across the country on the first three days of the CAT. The exam's staggered computerised format has a 10-day schedule and will conclude Dec 7.

'The students are now trying not to get bogged down by the system failure. They are concerned over the integrity of the CAT and whether the answers to questions they attempted would be fairly assessed by the computerised system that has failed on many counts,' said Gautam Puri, vice chairman of Career Launcher, a coaching institute.

CAT exam determines entry into prestigious business schools like the IIMs who also conduct the highly competitive exam.

The IIMs Monday said they empathise with the aspirants who could not take the computerised CAT because of technical problems and that they would be given a second chance within the scheduled testing period.

But most students are angry with poor communication and management, the coaching institutes said.

An American firm Prometric was awarded a $40 million contract by the IIMs to switch the prestigious CAT exam from optical marker reader assessment onto computers.

The company has alleged that 'viruses and malware that attacked the test delivery system were not detected by the anti-virus software at the testing centres'.

Meanwhile, the CAT committee has stressed that its role in administering the examination at the 105 centres in 32 cities was restricted to preparing questions.

'We recognise the difficulty that aspirants had to go through because of this and empathise with them. Every student who could not take the test because of the glitch will be accommodated,' Samir Barua, chairman of the IIM Directors' Forum had said in Ahmedabad.

Around 240,000 students have registered for the computerised CAT this year.

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