If there was one person who made as much news as CAT 2010, was its convenor Himanshu Rai. Almost a face for CAT 2010 Prof Rai not has received both bouquets and brickbats for the job done as convenor. Read on to what he has to say as his work with CAT 2010 draws to a close.
Are you sure about the CAT 2010 results? There are still apprehensions
There is no debate on the results at all. I have made sure that results have been checked four times. Besides, I have also done random checking. Only after I have been thoroughly satisfied that I have put up the results.
Normalisation and psychometrics were not exactly happy terms for CAT candidates
They are not but they have been explained in detail on the website before the exams started. Why they are used and how has been discussed so much. I dont understand why then the issue comes up every now and then. Those who question normalisation, question mathematics. Normalisation is a statistical tool. It is practised in so many places world over.
But the terms are still issues for CAT candidates since the process is not transparent?
How it is done I explained on the website. But yes, those who have not done well and felt wronged by the system, I feel bad for. I understand where their anger and disappointment and empathise with those students. If two sets of papers have different levels of difficulty, they have to be dealt with.
CAT is so important to people so when people fail, it really goes down bad
CAT is not the end of the world. If things go wrong and your tyre is punctured, dont stop there, get on. There is much more to life and so much to do. Just pick up yourself and go on. CAT is just one milestone. There are so many more to reach.
You have been the butt of much anger among CAT candidates
Yes and as I said I can feel the disappointment felt by the students. I can relate to their sentiments but I know how to get detached when I go home in the evening. I do not take my work home, nor the issues with it.
What will you take back with you from CAT 2010
I always understood human values but now I understand them even more. Even when people say they are unhappy with issues like normalisation, I understand. I believe in the inherent goodness of people. I receive plenty of emails, letters and hone calls from people some happy, some not so happy and I know why people say things they do.
There were issues with CAT centres, identification problems. You were rather strict
Yes, since there were strict rules laid this time. But I did feel very bad at asking people to go back without proper identification. Or those who missed the exam for other reasons which could be termed genuine by the candidate. I wish I could have done something for them and allowed them to take the test. But if I have made the law, I better learnt to stick with it before asking others to do so.
What now? CAT 2010 is done with
Oh, I can take up organising the Olympic Games now (laughs). There is so much that I have learnt from CAT 2010 and there is so much from my past experience in Tata Steel that I have used into my life and in CAT. I handled such huge projects there, that now I can work on just about any project given to me. By the way, our CAT servers have not crashed this year. Yes, I have multiple servers but things are going very well today.
Are you longing to get back to teaching and reading, what you enjoy most.
Yes, but I never lost contact with my teaching and also my reading. At no point did I stop teaching for the last one year. Last few months, I gave 4-5 hours to CAT daily and last few weeks, gave 14-15 hours but I still continued my teaching and reading. And yes, I am a trained mountaineer. Every year in May, I go mountaineering and this year too will be no different.