Maharashtra MBA Common Entrance Test (MAH-MBA/MMS CET) 2023 results were released on June 3. The candidates who appeared for the test were agitated and frustrated as the marks declared were low, candidates alleged. The MBA entrance test conducted by the Maharastra government was held on March 25 and 26 in 191 centres over two slots each day. The morning slot was from 9 am to 11.30 am followed by an afternoon slot from 2 pm to 4.30 pm.
After the exam days were declared, the CET Cell received complaints from a few candidates who scored fewer than what they expected. Their major complaint was that they were given lesser time than what is mandated due to various technical issues and also a few candidates, other than those belonging to the Persons with Disability (PwD) category, were given 180 minutes instead of the mandatory 150 minutes in the said examination.
Meeting the CET Commissioner
A candidate, who wished to stay anonymous, while speaking to EdexLive alleged, "Around 65 students met CET Commissioner on June 5 around 2 pm at the CET office, Churchgate. Although everyone was not allowed, five to six of us were allowed into the cabin and the commissioner refused to reveal the candidate's details."
What are the demands of the candidates?
1. Release non-normalised scores
2. Release candidates' response sheets
3. Release the answer key
4. Pubish list of candidates slotswise
Re-exam notification
On April 6, the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell announced a re-examination for candidates who faced technical glitches while appearing for the MAH-MBA CET 2023 exams, as stated in a report by Hindustan Times. On April 10, the State CET cell released the list of candidates who were erroneously allocated 180 minutes. As per reports, over one lakh candidates applied for the test and as per CET Cell's notice, 10,330 candidates were given 180 minutes.
On April 13, another notice was issued stating the eligibility for the re-test. It read, "Due to various technical issued during the incident MAH-MBA/MMS-CET 2023 examination the CET Cell will be conducting Re-examination on Sunday 30/04/2023 between 09.00 to 11.30 AM for following Candidates only. The CET result of these candidates will be declared on the basis of the Re-examination."
Further stating who can appear for re-test, the notice said, "Candidates who faced technical issues/ glitches within mandatory examination time of 150 minutes and who wish to reappear for the examination and Candidates who got examination time of 180 minutes instead of mandatory 150 minutes, it may be noted that the earlier examination of these candidates stands cancelled," it added.
But later, due to a clash with the Group B and Group C Services Combined Preliminary Exam-2023 on the same day, the cell rescheduled the re-test to May 6, 2023, from 9.00 am to 11.30 am. Following this, the results for these test slots were declared on June 3, which agitated the candidates.
How are results calculated?
The Cell follows the Normalization Method which is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multi-shift papers. As per Cell's document on the Normalization Method, "Percentile scores are scores based on the relative performance of all those who appear for the examination. Basically, the marks obtained are transformed into a scale ranging from 100 to 0 for each session of examinees. The Percentile Score indicates the percentage of candidates that have scored EQUAL TO OR BELOW (same or lower raw scores) that particular Percentile in that examination."
"Therefore the topper (highest score) of each session will get the same Percentile of 100 which is desirable. The marks obtained in between the highest and lowest scores are also converted to appropriate Percentiles. The Percentile Scores will be calculated up to 7 decimal places to avoid bunching effect and reduce ties," it added.
What do the candidates have to say?
Now, the candidates allege that instead of calculating candidates' percentile in comparison with others in the same slot, the CET Cell has jumbled the candidates of all slots together and has declared the results.
A candidate who appeared for the test second time this year recalls that in the previous year, all ranks were given to candidates from slots 2 and 3 and this year, it has been repeated again. Sharing more details on what possibly went wrong, the candidate, who wished to stay anonymous, alleged, "The allocation of candidates to a particular slot was random due to the additional re-test slot. Moreover, the difficulty level of the test for all slots was very random and varied in nature."
"The results announced were messed up and randomly jumbled for everyone. Scorecards have percentile in comparison with candidates from other slots," the candidate pointed out.
How is this affecting the candidates?
A candidate from Amravati in Maharastra, Tanmay Sadanand Kajale, while speaking to EdexLive, alleged, "CET Cell announced the wrong results for all those who appeared for re-exam. The student who should scored 60 percentile got 99 percentile. The student who should have bagged 88 percentile got only 40 percentile. The student who should have scored 80 percentile got only 41 percentile."
Tanmay alleged that the cell has allotted random percentile to students. "We feel our two to three years of hard work went in vain. We prepared rigorously for CET and this is what we are getting," he adds.
Another candidate Ekta Misra, whose first slot timing was 180 minutes and as a result, she had to appear for a re-test, said, "After giving the exam, I was pretty sure I would get above 98 percentile and I even shared with my family that I would easily score that much. However, after the result was announced, I was devastated. All my hard work went in vain."
"I scored 86.86 percentile, which was shockingly low. As soon as I saw the result I started weeping. I couldn't believe what I was seeing," shared the BMS graduate. Dejected and disappointed with low scores, she alleged, "CET is playing with our career after studying for a year. This is how our hard work is repaid."
A candidate Khushi Girdhar from Haryana scored 88 percentile as against her expectation of scoring 99+. "Last year with low preparation, I scored 92 percentile. And from last year, I toiled and the fact that I could not achieve the results I expected was very disheartening for me," she added. Khushi who seemed confident of scoring 99+ said, "I genuinely attempted 180 questions out of 200 and I was expecting 99+ as per last few year's trend of cut-offs because they never go above 180 but I got 88 percentile."
"There are only 120 seats in JBIMS (Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies) and we gave this exam with the hope to get into the institute but they just played with our careers and instead, undeserving candidates get into these premier colleges," she claimed. About the re-test, she claims that the candidates of Slot 1 and the re-test are the most affected ones. "There are no 99.95, 99.87 and so on percentiles from Slot 1. How is it possible? How have they compared our scores?" Khushi questions vehemently.
"In the Document of Normalisation, they clearly mentioned that they will release slot-wise toppers but they haven't even given 99.95 to anyone in our slot. This is injustice!" Khushi alleged.
Gopal Rathi, a candidate from Indore had travelled to Mumbai for the CET meeting. Sharing his experience, he said, "I travelled without a ticket, standing in the train for hours. I was expecting 99.93 percentile but to my shock, I was given 95.04."
"I can try one more time but what if they do the same thing again? What about my one year?" he questions adding that his score in all the mock tests was almost 100.
Lastly, candidates who spoke to EdexLive hoped that the CET Cell worked in a more transparent way. In this regard, Ekta Misra said, "I only wish CET was more transparent and helped us in every way possible by releasing scorecards after reevaluating our scores once again. Or at least releasing the answer key and our response sheet so that we can at least see for ourselves what we have truly scored."
What next?
"In order to know whether the cell followed the process or not, we need to know the scores. Additionally, even if they release the scores on our request, they may manipulate them. Therefore, we are demanding the release of answer sheets," shared a candidate. Once the answer sheets are out, we can proceed legally and question the cell, she added.
