There is a blaring mistake in the online registration process of CAT 2009that might, in the worst case, lay waste your Rs 1,400 voucher and make you buya new voucher and re-register. However, there is no need to panic;according to Prof Satish Deodhar from IIM-Ahmedabad, the IIMs are in talks withPrometric and a final solution to the problem will be declared by tomorrowevening.

Even though the IIMs require you to enter your HSC and SSC scores asadmission criteria, the CAT online registration process that opened up onSeptember 9 will not throw up an error if you forget to enter those scores inthe Educational Qualifications section of the form. The system will happilycomplete your registration process and send you an admit card, even though youdid not enter this vital information. Eventually your CAT score, however good,will be of no use because the IIMs need your HSC and SSC scores during GDshortlisting, which would have been absent from your profile, leading toautomatic disqualification from the IIMs.

Why are we saying that you may forget to enter your HSC and SSC scores? Itis because the user interface of the online registration system is not designedto place stress on this important step. On the first day of the registration, alot of CAT aspirants have reported forgetting to enter their school-levelscores. All these users thought that they had to enter their highesteducational qualification in the section of concern, and not all educationalqualifications. The system does not allow one to go back and enter these scoresagain.

If you have not filled the CAT online form yet, this article is a heads-upfor caution. Make sure you do not make this mistake.

If you have filled the CAT online form and have made this mistake, all maynot be lost yet. According to CAT 2009 Convenor Prof Satish Deodhar, talks areon with Prometric and a possible solution would be announced by tomorrow. So incase you were planning to rush to buy another voucher, hold it and wait forwhat they have to say.

I’d like to add a remark here. To be fair to Prometric+IIMs, the system doessay ‘Select all that apply’ in educational qualification section, implying thatone has to click all educational milestones in their life and enter therespective scores. However, from a Human-Computer Interaction or InteractionDesign point of view, this is very bad design. Human behavior with computers isa separate science altogether and plays by its own rules. On a paper-basedform, the IIMs can get away with putting stern rules and punishing those who donot abide by them. But what works on paper does not work on computers. I wonderif Prometric ran rigorous usability tests on this form, because if they haddone it with a sufficient number of users, this error in the user interfacewould have exposed itself.

Furthermore, if the eligibility for a management degree includes havingpassed HSC and SSC, the CAT 2009 online application form should not allowsubmission until these fields are completed.

Added later: Here are two features that ought to have beenin the user interface:

The following pictures will explain the problem better.

The educational qualifications section in CAT 2009 online registration mightmake you assume that you have to enter only your highest/latest qualification(below).

Instead, what you should do is first check all educational levels that youhave, and then enter scores for each level (below).

In case you forget to enter these details, you will not be allowed to enterthem later.