- The core committee of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) has recently announced that the next edition of the entrance examination shall be held online on May 10, 2015. Since the announcement, we have received emails from several CLAT aspirants expressing apprehensions about the new Computer Based Test (CBT) format.
Our view is that the transition from paper to computer based testing will in fact be beneficial for the exam takers. How? Read along:
1. Adoption of a CBT may actually mean that CLAT might be problem and controversy free in 2015. For those of you who aren’t aware, CLAT has attracted a fair share of controversy in the past. The comedy of errors began during the second edition of CLAT in 2009 when the examination had to be rescheduled because the question papers got leaked. In 2011, answers to some questions were left underlined in the question paper. The latest edition of CLAT took the shoddiness to a different level altogether. The issue of the erroneous merit list (later revoked and replaced causing inordinate delay in the admission process) due to a massive mix-up in the marks of various candidates is too well known to merit discussion again.
It is our view that switching to a computer based examination raises a glimmer of hope that there probably will be lesser hiccups on the organizing front next year. The CBT format also ensures that instances of paper leak, marked answers in the question papers and mixing up of OMRs do not occur again.
2. In the paper based format, the students are required to mark their responses with a pen in an OMR sheet. An answer once marked cannot be changed by a student later. On the other hand, a computer based examination would give the candidates an opportunity to review and change answers which they may have marked incorrectly.
3. A CBT ensures that the candidates get to utilize each minute of the allotted time for completing the examination. In a national level competitive examination, every minute counts. Often it happens that candidates at a particular examination center may be given lesser time than the allotted time for taking the examination. A computer based examination eliminates this problem as every computer terminal is provided with a stop watch which will only log out a candidate, once the allotted time gets over (and not a second before).
Essentially, the moot point is that a computer based examination will not lead to any modifications in the preparation methodology of next year’s CLAT aspirants. Any resultant changes brought by a computer based test will only benefit the candidates and bring transparency in the examination process.
All the best! -
Catch Us On
CLAT 2015 goes online!
