While many partied all through yesterday after getting their CAT results, a few closed themselves to the world, trying to find an answer to just one question – what did I do wrong? These were those who expected to do well and are generally among the ‘brainy’ lot with regards to other MBA entrance exams.

Abhishek Sivarana from Pune is sad. He expected to do very well but just got in the region of a 90 percentile. “The system is flawed. I was definitely expecting a better score,” he said.

“Today the IIMs have a monopoly. They can pick and chose who they want but candidates like us do not have so much of a choice, especially those of us who thought we deserved better scores,” he added.

Having the faintest hopes of re-evaluation, Abhishek is now looking forward to converting IIT-B and IIFT calls. “There are good b-schools too and will hope I am able to get in,” he sighed.

Priyabrata Bisoi has got a 95.6 percentile and is at a loss explaining his score card to himself, forget his family and friends. He is sure that normalisation has got the better of him. “I was in a difficult slot and I know things have gone wrong because of normalisation but what can be done.”

Priyabrata has not yet decided what to do as he is in too much of a shock but will take a decision in the next few days.

Other candidates who are usually toppers but fared badly this time say that the transition from pen-paper test to the computer format makes a big difference in the final scores. Explains Shashank Prabhu, CET topper who scored a 93 percentile this time: The difference between when CAT was held on paper and now is the narrow range most of the good candidates fit into. In 2008, the difference in marks between the 100 percentiler and a 99.5 percentiler was around 60-70 marks out of 360. This year, the difference between a 100 percentiler and a 93 percentiler is more than 100 marks out of 450. With the number of questions going down from 90 to 60 and the marks per question apparently increased, the competition has become cut-throat. A mistake or two can take the score down by 10-20 marks thus taking the candidate about 2000 places back.

The lack of transparency with regards to normalisation is an issue everybody spoke about this season – be it a topper or someone who fared badly in the exam. Many of those who have fared poorly say that it is obvious that normalisation has been carried out aptly for many of the slots. “But for some of the slots where the difficulty level was high or when there were wrong questions, skewed sectionals have been seen,” said another candidate who had also hoped to rock this year’s CAT exams.

Sanjay Gandhi  from Pune has got a 62.87 and is almost in shock. He was one of those who first spoke about wrong questions during teh season. “Last year at least I had got a call from Wellingkar, Bangalore with 77 percentile but this year, I can expect nothing,” he said.

He too blames the normalisation totally for the debacle. “At least the process should be transparent, then we would know where things went wrong,” he pleads.

And Tarun Tiwari from Jamshedpur who has scored a 99.44 percentile also thinks he has been slightly wronged. Though a 99 percentiler, Tarun is down. “I was expecting much more. My score is definitely not what I should have got.”  He has not got any calls so far but is hoping to net one soon. Tarun’s other worry is that his XAT exam was also very difficult. He is hoping things change for him in the coming days and weeks and he is able to convert at least one reputed college.