This looks like the beginnings of one-upmanship contest in computer-based exam awesomeness. While the CAT grapples with getting the basics write, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies’ (NMIMS) entrance exam NMAT is offering a choice of three attempts to aspiring candidates.
The best score of the three attempts will be considered. Besides giving the candidates more than one chance of attempt, the NMAT this year will also not penalize candidates for attempting a question incorrectly. There will be no negative marking in NMAT.
But as they say, there’s nothing like a free lunch. Trying to improve one’s score in NMAT will cost additional money. Though each candidate can appear for the test three times in his own name, each attempt will be as good as registering themselves again for the test. For each attempt the candidate will need to make a payment of the full registration fee. The institute is still to declare the registration fee for this year’s NMAT, although last year this registration fee was Rs 1,650.
NMAT was turned into a computer-based entrance test last year and went by without any major untoward incidents. The test score is considered for shortlisting students for the admission processes of MBA Core, MBA – Capital markets, MBA – Banking, MBA – Actuarial Science, MBA – Pharmaceutical Management, MBA – HR, PGDM and EPGDBM programs at NMIMS. The online registration for NMAT will begin from September 8.
“The test will be conducted over three months, starting October 2010,” said professor Anupam Rastogi, the Dean of Admissions at NMIMS.
When asked how did the institute come to decide giving the candidates three attempts, professor Rastogi said, “The whole idea of introducing the three attempts is to give the candidates a chance to improve their score. If a candidate takes the test in the very first week itself, he would receive his result for that in four to five weeks. Once the candidate has his scores in hand, he can decide where to use that score or take a second attempt at the test and improve the score. One could take a third attempt too, if the candidate is not happy with his score even the second time. A candidate can take the re-attempts on consecutive days if he or she want to. All this would have to be done within the three-month testing window.”
Speaking further about removing negative marking from the test, professor Rastogi said, “It is a much debated thing in the academic community internationally if a candidate should be penalized for incorrectly attempting a question. But we have decide to take negative marking away and let the candidates take informed guesses.” The format of the test will remain the same as before with 120 multiple choice questions equally divided among the Quant, Verbal and Logical reasoning sections.
The computer-based NMAT will be conducted by Pearson Vue again at 18 centres all over the country (Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, Patna and Raipur).
NMAT has also aborted its honeymoon with taking the test international. Last year, the test was delivered in Australia, UK and a dozen Asian countries at already established Pearson Vue centers. According to the NMIMS Dean, there weren’t enough test-takers at foreign locations to justify the operational costs incurred. Hence this year, NMAT will be delivered only in India. Candidates looking to apply from abroad could use the GMAT score, professor Rastogi added.