PCs Malfunctioning & Shutting Down; Exam Starting Hours Late; Students Losing Out 10-15 Minutes: CLAT 2018 Sees It All!

It has been less than 24 hours since thousands of students across the country appeared for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)- 2018 with hopes of their hard-work finally paying off. Little did they know that the only thing consistent about CLAT so far has been its inconsistencies and repeated mismanagement.Almost all students who LiveLaw got in touch with faced terrible technical snags, with their computers shutting down more than once, more than 10-15 minutes being lost in the meantime. Where the exam had to begin at 3, a few students could begin only at 5:30.What's worse is that a new online test interface was introduced less than a month before the exam. This interface, students complained, was not user-friendly, to begin with. This, coupled with massive mismanagement, has led to more than just a few demands for a re-examination.A complaint has already been registered in Jaipur against Mr. Deepaankar Sharma and Mr. Gyan Bissa, one of them being an Assistant Professor at NLU, Jodhpur. The complaint alleges that the duo selectively provided an extension of about 40 minutes to a few students while denying the same to others. Statements of four students have been recorded so far.https://twitter.com/shamnad/status/995707390686212096With this year's examination being touted as one of the worst ones so far, it is time that the Apex Court steps in on the Petition filed by Prof. Basheer demanding institutionalization of CLAT by establishing a permanent body for conducting the examination. The Petition is set to come up on Tuesday, i.e. 15 May.Students recall the horror of it allA centre in Hisar, HaryanaAccording to sources, students at a centre in Hisar were taking the exam till 8 pm. Several students had to attempt the exam twice or thrice due to technical glitches. The centre saw the presence of the Police, Bar Council as well as media, with students and parents furious with the administration for its conduct of the exam.Mulund, Mumbai centreA student who appeared for the exam at a center in Mulund, Mumbai recalled how he lost almost 10 minutes due to such technical glitches. Not only did he find the new interface to not be user-friendly, he was also certain that this was the most mismanaged law entrance exam out of all those he had taken this year.https://twitter.com/kavita_tewari/status/995683940198268930Here's what he had to say:"I went to answer my CLAT examination with hopes, aspirations and confidence, little did I know at that time that I'd be coming out after one of the most mismanaged papers ever. I was at the Mulund center where we were told that there was a technical error and as a result the paper was delayed by almost an hour. https://twitter.com/Me_as_Pu/status/995682913654984705When we first answered the paper we were getting all sorts of shapes and symbols instead of what we expected to be questions, on complaining to the supervisor they said wait, I had already lost 2.5 to 3 minutes by then. The entire interface was difficult to comprehend despite the administrative bodies claim that it was "improved". I definitely did not see any improvement whatsoever. All was well for a while until the server crashed again, and the same story was repeated. This was absolutely not expected from a body that conducts exams for the most reputed law colleges in India, during the second server crash I lost more time which was a total of around 10 minutes (including the time I lost in the start).https://twitter.com/dipeshsingla95/status/995659237459021825I was told by the invigilators that I would get my time in the end but they said it is not in their hands and they cannot do anything about it. An exam which was supposed to get over by 5 got over past 6. We spent another hour getting it in writing from the test administrator about what happened. If I had just got those 10 minutes I could have easily got a minimum of 7 marks more. This was not at all expected from an all India level examination. Out of the 3 entrance exams I've given I can safely say that this was by far one of the worst exams ever conducted.https://twitter.com/gurmeet2711/status/995675212342579200I do hope that NUALS and the board don't take this matter lightly as this is a matter regarding several students future. I would like them to know what it feels like from our viewpoint while standing in our shoes, it's absolutely not fair that you study for 12 hours a day for a month and a half and get this outcome. This was totally uncalled for."Davin Infotech, Thane (W) centreAnother student who took the exam had to face even worse glitches, having to change the PC he was working on not just before the exam but also during it. In fact, he was allotted the computer being used for biometric registration, and was constantly asked to leave the PC for other students to get registered.https://twitter.com/KumarNaugain/status/995646010885099522Here are the complications that he had to face:"Unlike the previous years, CLAT this time was a disaster. Not just...

PCs Malfunctioning & Shutting Down; Exam Starting Hours Late; Students Losing Out 10-15 Minutes: CLAT 2018 Sees It All!

Apoorva Mandhani

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