The Indian Institutes of Management decided to move the Common Admission Test (required for admission to Indian MBA programs and similar to the GMAT in North America) to a computer-based test delivery model available over a ten day period. (In previous years, the test was administered in paper/pencil format on only one day.) This year, nearly 200,000 candidates applied to take the exam. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors including widespread hardware issues and a Cornflicker virus infection, there were major problems in delivering the test. A number of testing centers had to be shut down with reports indicating that some 10%-18% of candidates had to be re-scheduled (though it appears all who were not successful in doing so). Given the scale of the program, it has garnered substantial coverage in the press as well as in the Indian Parliament and brought forth public interest from number of other test delivery organizations that manage large-scale test delivery projects in India and would like to take on the project next year.

Reid Klion