The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2018 could be the worst edition of the exam conducted in recent years yet, according to the reports of lapses flowing in from various exam centers, even resulting in at least one police complaint filed by candidates since yesterday.
Over 59,300 candidates appeared in the CLAT 2018 for LLB and LLM seats across 22 national law universities (NLU), CLAT 2018 convenor Nuals Kochi’s vice chancellor Prof Rose Varghese told us today.
With around 300-500 students attempting the CLAT 2018 at each test centre and with reportedly at least 14 centres experiencing technical glitches, yesterday’s exam could have potentially occurred in test centres at which 10% or more of this year’s total candidates were sitting.
Varghese said the convenor to look into any problems, and told us: “We are looking into each and every report. At 1.5% [of the total] centres computers failed and immediately [the candidates] were given the time. I will manually look into the computer login report.
“They were given 20 minutes if they lost 20 mins, if they lost 10 mins they were given 10 mins. But the students are young so they are reacting.”
As feared after the unfriendly user interface of the CLAT demo test site was revealed, the online test interface for yesterday’s exam was too weak to handle its recent changes that were introduced by Sify Technologies - the technical contractor for CLAT 2018. Reports of systems crashing and hanging and breaking down during the exam in various ways resulting in candidates losing time as well as panicking, have come in so far from Delhi, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Indore, Faridabad, Dehradun, Lucknow, Mysore, Thane, Nagpur, Patiala and Jaipur, according to Twitter, as reported by Lawctopus, Law Entrance, the Express and other media.
Glitches allegedly included, among others:
- The test starting with blank screens with no questions, candidates having to restart it after losing 10 minutes
- Computers hanging
- Test timers continuing to run even though the test would hang
- Electricity cuts
- Extremely slow biometric verification
- Discrepancy between the test time allotted to various candidates
- Infrastructural deficiencies such as miscommunicated centre names or locations, misallotment of seats at centre, no pen and paper provided whereas it is a requirement, no practice test done as the centre was running late, centre not properly ventilated, etc.
- mouse not working properly
- Tabs not working smoothly - sometimes skipping questions, at other times not saving answers|
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Police complaint in Jaipur
Seven students affected at the exam centre at the Radhakrishnan Institute of Technology, Jaipur have filed a police complaint against two invigilators at their centre for depriving them of the extra time they were entitled to and later allegedly “absconding” from the centre without addressing the grievances of candidates and their parents.
Statements of four of the seven complainants have been recorded.
According to one of the complainants whom we spoke to, out of around 8 exam rooms at the centre all the computers in at least one room, which had around 25 candidates, were allegedly experiencing “technical errors” on the ground of which the invigilators had allegedly promised those candidates 30 minutes extra time over the two hours officially allotted for answering the CLAT. The invigilators allegedly refused to disclose exactly what the “technical errors” were, eventually did not allow the students the extra time they were assured of and even used force by themselves clicking on the “exit” button on the candidates’ computer screens causing the test to close, and then asking the candidates to leave the premises.
The complainant told us that after the affected candidates and their parents collectively raised a furore at the centre the invigilators assured them that they would help them get an undertaking signed by Sify Technologies that there were technical errors in the test which harmed these students. However, even as the candidates prepared the content of the undertaking the invigilators allegedly escaped the premises.
The invigilators were allegedly NLU faculty members. The FIR is registered in the Mahindra SEZ police station in Jaipur.
Varghese commented today: “We sit here for 260 centres all over India. We conducted mock tests in every single centre. I was very particular that my observer went to every single centre.
“There was a technical error. Young children naturally make a big noise when there is a delay. The moment they said it our service providers immediately restarted it. We have the record here. It is too soon for me to share the record but somewhere there is a fault of the local servers. Our Sify report - log report will decide it. It will be done.”
“I am doing this whole thing with an extremely efficient team sitting with me. 90% centres went very smooth. Believe me I will not give you any wrong report. It just got over yesterday so can’t say by when [there will be a resolution] but we are looking at it,” she added.
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P.S- I have been informed that yesterday's horror show is going to decide my placements five years from now.
P.P.S- For the uninitiated, high paying law firms only go to the top 6 colleges. So if luck didn't favour you yesterday, you won't have a job after 5 years.
May lord have mercy!
To begin their response by saying that "the exam was smooth for 98% people is proof that it wasn't that smooth for the rest of us, and this is a textbook case of discrimination. Shame on the authorities trying to cover this up. If a student is responsible for carefully downloading and preserving the admit card, reaching in time, paying fees and waiting like a dumb mule, then even the organisers have some responsibility towards the aspirants. Making us sit in exam halls that look like stables, lack of ventilation, with 18th century computer setups, and then expecting us to compete with 98% others who could perform smoothly, is highly discriminatory.
I hope the organisers realise what horrible mistakes they have commited and come to their senses. This is not the place to exchange blame. Please be very careful in choosing your next words. "They were young so they made a commotion about it " shows how extremely misinformed and patronising the organisers are. Let us drop the act and take some serious steps towards solving this.
There was no ventilation and even WATER was not made available. There was no proper facility to at least supply us with water and we were given death stares when we asked for water in the sweltering heat. At last, a kind staff member gave me his own water bottle to drink water from. The toilets were pathetic.What do girls, who give their exams, while in their periods do? They use the run down rooms, more like a bathroom as toilets. There wasn't even a toilet pot to urinate in. Just a 3*3 feet stretch of tiles. No water to clean up. You can imagine the mess.
Anyways, who the hell in India cares about toilets anyways, more so for "women"? Hain! What followed was a circus. I felt as if I was sitting in the set of Kapil Sharma's show. The first 10 minutes were full of confusion as bewildered supervisors looked on. The confusion and angry reactions from students gave way for people to cheat. Answers were discussed and information exchanged.
In the last segment, after the test was going to be reopened after being closed, the staff members were confused as to how to do it. They told us to press the exit button one by one, row wise. Yeah, as if we knew, what the students at the end of the hall were doing and at what exact moment they were going to press the exit button. This gave students seated at the other end, at the last row, undue advantage and 20 odd extra minutes. At least 15 questions were wrong prima facie.
A mockery has been made of the entire process.
No, you patronising [...], they're making a big noise because you're incompetent. They have paid to take this exam and their future depends on it - they are well within their rights to make that noise. How about you do your job properly instead of glossong over with ageist nonsense?
The exam decides one's career. The fee charged for this exam is over Rs. 4000. Add to this the fact that it is held in far flung colleges, which entails in spending a lot of money to reach the centre itself. While the Organizers seem intent on things like frisking (which they should be) and not even allowing to carry a simple pen inside the hall, they seem to miss the larger picture of holding the exam in the best possible way.
YOU DECIDE WHETHER YOUNG PEOPLE MAKE NOISE UNNECESSARILY OR OLD PEOPLE HIDE THEIR FAULTS BEING A VC.
Why we cannot hold atleast one examination properly and sincerely. we deserve another chance. Rs.4000 is a big deal for many of those who dreams were turned into nightmares due to technical glitches.
Paper of national importance should be conducted FAIR.
If any institute can not provide us with that it should not take intitiative to that.
whose dreams **
initiative for**
It was not just delay, but utter mismanagement. Because NUALS Kochi failed to put competent invigilators at place, they were clueless about it all. Students wasted 5, 10, 30 mins of their time. Many gave exam in complete commotion.
Some centers did not have air conditioning or even good air curcuation. Would you put this on their 'youth' too? Or for god's sake admit how incompetemt you are!
For all major online exams, TCS is entrusted with the responsibility of managing it and they usually do a great job at it. WHY THE HELL WAS TCS NOT GIVEN THE CONTRACT FOR CONDUCTING THE CLAT EXAM???!! WHY WAS A DINGY, SIPPY SIFFY WHATEVER COMPANY GIVEN THE SOFTWARE?? THESE GUYS SHOULD BE PENALISED HEAVILY.
I guess you are the one who has got 20 minutes extra and being wrong benefitted you're afraid that if re-examination happens then your clown will blown.
What an stupid comments he made that some student be given 2 marks as for compensation for time lost.
I have to tell you that there are brighter student than you who would have score atleast 10+ score in that time timelines.
I strongly DEMAND retest of CLAT in written form so that justice is served !
Would Sify records show how students couldn't even have water at some of the centers?
Will your 'competent' team tell us why the quality and know-how of invigilators was pathetic across centers?
Would your Sify records have recorded how some students cried in the center, even fought with the invigilators because your incompetence made them helpless in an exam they had prepared sonlong and hard for?
This is shameful and disgusting! Instead of showing an iota of responsibilty you are blaming this whole fiiasco on the youth of children.
I don't think a person with such an attitude deserves to be the VC of a college.
*some candidates got extra minutes,
*Test repeatedly lagged,crashed,I had to re login once,timer did'nt stop!
*ultimately,siffy is at fault,there was problem with server,some monitors,but invigilators cooperative, atleast in my centre.
NOW ALL CENTRES(hope)have CCTVs ,PROF.ROSE SHOULD SEE THE FOTTAGE,LOGs,.
I gave my test at EXAM, Bhubaneswar
Well, the older ones are grumpy and unreasonable. Relatable, isnt it Prof. Varghese?
twitter.com/vensykrishna
Another thing, they were getting our signs during the exam!!!
I cannot describe how disturbing it is when someone pauses you during the exam like CLAT!
Even in city like Mumbai the centres were pathetic and your NEW interface was at a full stop... pathetic..
1. Your fees was high so obvious expectation that you would have an intelligent workforce and technical arrangement, but alas .. it wasnt.
2. The centres allocated were far off from residence (MH CET and Symbiosis had managed this better than you at National Level)
3. The centres were small computer classes where students had to cramp and sit, they could hear each others breathing too. The partitions between two systems were cardboards. The room had Air Conditioner, but window broken and hence open and NO FAN working
4. There were no invidilators in the room.
5. The system hang issue varied from person to person in same room and amongst all rooms in a centre
6. In my daughters class 6 kids 4 lost 10 minutes, she lost 30 min and another kid lost 40 min.. While the other room kids lost max 45 min
7. The tech team at this centre, since it was a computer class was all again young kids barely completed graduation and they had no clue how to attend to the issue.. None of the tech team sir belong to Nuals Kochi’s .. Ideally one at each centre should have been placed.
8. For some kids the system reset and they could get full tme, but for most others all the gime was lost
9. At my daughters centre they weren't given ANY Extra time .. they asked the kids to give feedback and write the time they lost..
10. The biometric sheet which was done at entry was lost by the centre while exit and infact kids were made to wait for 30 min to get that sheet.. so extra time was for waiting for the centre to find the biometric sheet sir.
Inspite of all this you say it was only 1.5% centres.. please calculate how many kids .. Sir even 1 kid out of all 59300 kids suffering like this is a BIG SHAME for an exam like CLAT...
To all the authorities of CLAT a BIG SHAME this exam has been.. on top of that you have the audacity to say all these comments of yours .. SHAME ON YOU...
As per the statements of C Officials,Extra time was given, but I would like to know that as the clock is online how come they give extra time? and if the extra time was given anyhow,they have to check, why the Oriental College, Bhopal officials did not given the extra time to their students.
I request the CLAT officials to check the Data from the ‘Online Server Agency ‘ about the computer shut downs of the students and the time actual time lost/ vanished due to the technical error, and do the needful to the results of those affected students accordingly.
....A disgusted parent of a Clat aspirant
b) If someone can get it wrong, they will.
c) If several things can go wrong, the one you would LEAST like to happen will occur.
d) If you can think of four ways that something can go wrong, it will go wrong in a fifth way.
Well,folks, Murphy's Law did apply in its perfect storm avatar during the CLAT2018 on line exam held at Ahmedabad. In the searing cauldron that's Ahmedabad with mercury hitting mid forties, our worthies who were handling the registration desk at that centre, pulled up a temporary makeshift counter in front of Shubham Arcade entry and lined up all the hapless aspirants, exposing them to the heat and dust outside. It required persuasion and finally shouting by a few to make this reg desk fellow see sense, when he was forced to create some space by moving the registration desk backwards by a few feet, something which could have been done at the beginning itself with some common sense. It would have ensured that candidates didnt get heatstroke or dehydration.After entry in to the labs, power went off, screens froze.Candidates panicked.
Complaints like not having easy access to some drinking water at least, fell on deaf ears.
Loss of valuable time, half hour extension for the lab where things didnt work right from the outset, all added up. Overall, a pathetic effort by the organisers after collecting Rs 4000 as testing fee and botched up the exam itself. Eminently forgettable experience for a lot of candidates, whom I met. This sham of an exam should be cancelled and retest ordered, for ensuring that equity, fair play and justice is rendered to the affected candidates.
elp me to how to proceed further.
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