The faculty associations of IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Kolkata have passed separate resolutions, looking for scrapping of the test. A few thousand students could not write the test due to virus attack and other technical problems.

Discontented over the manner the CAT was conducted, the Human Resource Development Ministry has convened a meeting of IIM directors on Wednesday to communicate its concerns.

Higher Education Secretary Vibha Puri Das will preside over the meeting of IIM directors to talk about the issue in detail, a Human Resource Development Ministry official said.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has previously expressed displeasure over students facing difficulty during the computerized test which was blemished by glitches from its commencement. The issue was raised in Parliament when BJP members criticized the government for the disaster.

The test, which was supposed to be taken by 2.41 lakh students, was conducted by an American firm Prometric in a spread out manner over 11 days. However, all candidates failed to appear in the test due to the “virus attack”.

The HRD Ministry shot off a letter to Deodhar, asking him to present a realistic description on the entire matter of disturbance in the test, which is being conducted by an American firm Prometric, a ministry official said.

Due to “virus attack” in the computers, almost 4,000 students could not appear in the examination throughout the initial two days of the 10-day long spread out entrance that commenced on Saturday.

Scores of students were not able to emerge in the examination at quite a few centers on Monday as well as technical glitches sustained to disturb and upset the exam. Candidates could not attempt the test at a few centers in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ghaziabad due to out of order and malfunctioning of computers at these places.

About 2.41 lakh students are planned to appear in the test for admission into seven IIMs and a few other B-Schools. The American firm Prometric has been awarded a $40 million agreement by the Indian Institutes of Management to computerize the prominent CAT.

Nevertheless, IIM, Bangalore, Director Prof Pankaj Chandra said the first session of the test was a “smooth affair”. “It has been a smooth affair. There was no server crash throughout the exam,” he told PTI.

Asked in relation to the reports of technical glitches, he said, “There might be a few instances of virus attack in the computers at certain centers. But at this stage I cannot substantiate”.

Meanwhile, Ulhas Vairagkar, director of the TIME institute, a preparatory school for IIM aspirants, said, “We got calls from students in six cities saying they were not able to give the examination since the computer system crashed. The students have been told they be able to take an additional time slot”.

It was the first time the CAT was conducted across India on computers — as conflicting optical reading marker. The Indian Institutes of Management, which carry out the exam, said they would comment later. It was not clear how many students were affected Saturday.

An American firm, Prometric, which has developed the computer system for CAT, said it would be capable to evaluate what went wrong only by around 2 pm. Around 50,000 students are to appear for the examination in Delhi over a 10-day period. The test is programmed in 32 cities at 105 centers, all linked to a main server.

IIMs and Prometric had issued a disclaimer to all the students appearing for the examination to abstain from discussing the latest format and questions till Dec 7 when the exam timetable ends. Last year, almost 276,000 students across India took the examination. Some experts said before that the fall in registrations this year was due to CAT going hi-tech.

CAT scores decide admission to the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong in addition to the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, Institute of Management Training in Ghaziabad, Mudra Institute of Communications in Ahmedabad and Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research in Mumbai.

While this is general information and was valid for the previous CAT exams as well, this is perhaps the first instance that the regulation has been put out in writing. Candidates appearing for CAT will have to assent to a Non-Disclosure Agreement at the moment of the test.

According to the disclaimer, ‘‘Disclosing, publishing, reproducing, transmitting, storing, or facilitating transmission and storage of the contents of the CAT or any information therein in whole or part thereof in any form or by any means, verbal or written, electronically or mechanically for any purpose, shall be in violation of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and/or the Copyright Act, 1957 and/or the Information Technology Act.’’

While coaching classes have regularly put out particulars of the CAT paper online and have analyzed the paper in detail on their websites, this time round, a lot of them say they are doing a rethink.

‘‘We’ve consulted our lawyers over the issue, and they say we could request a punishment if we divulge any details about the paper,’’ said a coaching class head.

The CAT, which has become online from this time, will be held between a 10 day bracket starting from November 28 and December 7 in 32 cities and at 105 testing centers.

Approximately 242,000 aspirants will try to bell the CAT this year for admission into the reputed IIMs.

The number has fallen from 276,000 candidates previous year. “Candidates are encouraged to view the YouTube videos,” an official message from the IIMs and their online test conductor Prometric said Wednesday.

There are a number of videos accessible on the YouTube for helping aspirants in coping with the exam. The IIMs particularly have urged students to watch a video titled “What to expect on test day”.

The management school in addition issued a final reminder to candidates appearing for the CAT to “stay contactable by phone and email from today onwards. Access emails frequently, counting the spam folder”.

The candidates have too been asked to make sure the admit cards meticulously for appointment date, time and test location.

“Candidates should note that any SMS messages sent by Prometric will be from PROMETRC (the letter

“i” has been omitted to be conventional to the TRAI eight-character ID regulation),” the company underlined.