Cost and Management Accounting students stage protest against online exams, new paper pattern

Apart from the concerns on the exam pattern, students are also worried about the release of admit cards which are yet to be issued.

Students of Cost and Management Accounting (CMA) of the intermediate and final levels Friday staged a protest in various parts of the country against the upcoming online examination. The examination, which is organised by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICWAI), will begin on December 8. 

Siddharth Jalan, a student from Kolkata appearing for the examination, said it is not feasible to solve complex theoretical questions and type the answers online within the stipulated time. “Formulas, including square roots and integral figures are not available on traditional keyboards. How are we supposed to alphabetically define the entire formula to solve a question? No extra time is being allotted to complete the paper either,” Jalan told indianexpress.com.

“We are not used to the online mode and we may end up losing marks. Last year, when the exam was held online, students had faced technical glitches which resulted in not one but two rounds of re-examinations. This is causing us a lot of mental stress,” he further added.

Meanwhile, Yash Dharewal, another CMA student from Delhi, said the new exam pattern is discriminatory for English medium students as ICWAI has allowed the Hindi medium students to attempt the exam in the pen and paper mode. 

The exam pattern has also been changed this year. In the previous pattern, 60 per cent questions used to be in the MCQ format while the rest used to be theory-based. However, the pattern has been reversed from this year and now, 60 per cent of the questions will be based on theoretical knowledge while rest 40 per cent will be MCQ. 

“As the theory part has increased, technically we should have been provided with extra time to attempt the paper. The step has been rolled out in a haste without considering the inconvenience to the students,” Dharewal said. 

The student body had also filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking its direction to conduct the CMA exams in the offline mode. However, the top court denied to intervene in the matter and said the decision taken by the institute will be final and binding.

Apart from the concerns on the exam pattern, students are also worried about the release of admit cards which are yet to be issued. As per the students, the website for the admit cards is dysfunctional and they are not aware how to download the admit card.

CMA Raju Iyer, President of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, said the website is currently under maintenance and the admit cards will be shortly issued to all the students appearing for the exams from December 8.

Talking about the change in the exam pattern, Raju said, “With changing times, we have to adapt with technology. The new exam pattern has been introduced to enhance the exam quality and this will benefit the students in the long-run.”

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