New Delhi: The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 first hit headlines for the continued technical glitches that marred the conduct of the all-important exam. Now, after the second phase of the exam, it's the results of the entrance exam which has brought it back into the news.

The CAT 2009 results, which were expected to be out by the third week of February, have now been delayed with an official from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) confirming that, "They are expected to be out only by February end."

The results were first expected to be declared in the third week of February. However, the CAT website was recently updated with the message that the results will come out only in the month-end.


Due to various technical glitches, which dented the image of CAT 2009 that went online for the first time, the authorities were forced to conduct a re-test a few days back, which is why, the hold up in declaration of results for a lot of candidates has come as a final indictment of the new system.

The CAT is not just a gateway to the country's prestigious IIMs, but approximately 2.41 lakh students, who took the exam last year, are also eligible to be admitted on the basis of CAT score to 80 other B-schools across the country.

A student from Podar College who took the test this year said that, "With the advent of technology, one expects that the process is ought to speed up, but the scenario seems upside down for CAT."

The 33 year old conventional paper-pencil CAT, last year was replaced by an online exam for the first time which was held from November 27 to December 7, 2009.

With what was supposed to be an error free national exam was marred by technical glitches as the servers were unable to handle the large number of students who were logged in, with their computer screens going blank.

After much brouhaha, the IIMs re-scheduled the test on January 30 and 31 for almost 11,000 candidates who could not attempt it due to technical problems.