E-Paper
Leak rumours fly as CAT result out of the bag sooner than expected
The results of Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 were inadvertently disclosed ahead of the scheduled announcement of results early morning, Friday.
Results of the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015, the qualifying exam to Indian Institutes of management and a few B-schools in the country, were declared on Friday — much ahead of the scheduled announcement expected in the second week of January.
Several students said the results were announced after a ‘technical glitch’ on the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) website helped scores of aspirants access their total percentile as early as 6 in the morning. TCS is the testing agency for the examinations.
Professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay of IIM Ahmedabad, the convenor of the 2015 edition of the test, rubbished the allegations. “We had messaged the total percentile to all candidates at 1:50 pm… Today morning (between 9:00-9:40 am), some students accessed their own results (not others) on the portal while the website was being updated. This caused some confusion among students. There was no leakage, no error or hacking of data whatsoever. TCS plugged this loophole immediately”, the professor said.
TCS too denied any leaks had taken place, with a spokesperson saying, “…we wish to reiterate that there was no leakage, no error or hacking of data. All students have also received their results”.
Students, however, said they were taken by surprised when they received their results on text messages.
“Till yesterday evening, there were no reports of any alterations on the website. But today, at around 6 am, a few students managed to pick the additional lines that had appeared in the code. The news spread through forums, blogs and social media and soon, hundreds of students had checked their scores. The link was blocked again by 10:36 am. As of now, students are getting their overall percentile as an SMS which matches the score they had received in the morning,” said Shashank Prabhu, CAT 2011 topper, and director, Learning Roots, an entrance test preparation platform.
