Academic

A management institute based in Pune wanted an end-to-end solution to conduct their national-level management entrance examination. The solution was to include everything from assessment design to delivery of scores.

The customer wished to outsource the entire entrance test process in order to de-engage faculty so that they could concentrate only on teaching. Besides, their applicants were spread out all over India & the institute had to conduct the test in multiple locations. Due to this, the institute had to get involved in logistics management, which was something they had no expertise in. Lastly, since the institute offers multiple programs that follow different admission calendars, the same cycle of activities had to be repeated multiple times.

Admissions for the flagship program of the institute were about to commence when Attest was awarded the contract. Thus, Attest had to set up the entire process within a very tight deadline.

The scope of work included:

• Test design for
• Management Entrance exam
• Media Entrance exam
• Delivery of test in paper-pencil mode across India in two distinct phases
• Result processing & score reporting

Applicants for the programs were spread across 16 states in 20 separate locations. The challenge was to identify & create venues in remote locations with a capacity to accommodate the required number of candidates - within the given time.

To meet these goals, Attest created a task force comprising people with knowledge of respective areas/ locations. This team identified & certified venues in record time, without compromising on any quality aspect.

On to the test design phase. Here, the goal was to create an assessment to filter out 95% candidates and select only the top 5% for Group Discussion & Interview rounds. Areas to be assessed included:

• Numerical Ability
• Verbal Ability
• Reading Comprehension
• Analytical Ability
• General Awareness/ Media Awareness (for the media management program)

Attest selected a team from its ready pool of Subject Matter Experts (SME). This Test Design Committee was headed by a senior educationist with extensive experience in Entrance Test Design for B-schools. The committee designed a test blueprint that ensured assessment objectives were met. Items were carefully crafted & administered to a sample base of candidates in a confidential manner. To constitute the final paper, a random mix of items was chosen. The entire process was conducted in a highly secure environment where none of the SME had any peer-level communication.

Once the question paper was validated by the customer, the following steps were taken:

• The finalized question paper was printed under 24x7 surveillance at two separate locations to ensure zero possibility of leakage. The pages were assembled by Attest employees following strict security measures.
• The printed papers were shipped through Attest’s dedicated logistics partner to Attest Authorized Education Partners across multiple locations in India. At each location, the authorized Test Administrator took custody of the papers. Attest arranged strict warehouse security to ensure zero tampering of papers at any stage. The papers were opened only in the presence of authorized representatives of the customer.
• After the test was conducted, the next critical step was reverse logistics. Answer sheets were shipped to the central processing hub through Attest’s dedicated logistics partner. Attest ensured that all unused question papers & answer sheets were brought back as any spillage of information would have counted as a security breach.
• Back at the central processing hub, the answer sheets were scanned through an Optical Mark Reader and candidate responses were mapped & put together in an Attest database. The data was analyzed & processed as per the customer’s requirement and score cards were generated for candidates.

This project stands testimony to Attest?s ability to execute critical tasks within stringent deadlines, while also conforming to the best standards in quality & information security.