Students after appearing for CAT at Cambridge Institute of Technology in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi/Jamshedpur, Oct. 27: The first day of the second online edition of Common Admission Test (CAT) went off smoothly in the state with candidates, haunted by last year’s glitches, expressing satisfaction with the arrangements.

This year, over 8,000 candidates are taking the examination from Jharkhand, which has been allotted two test centres — Cambrian Institute of Technology (CIT), Tatisilwai, and RVS Institute of Engineering and Technology at Bhilaipahari, about 25km from Jamshedpur.

Three hundred students took the online test at CIT today while 100 tackled the mouse at RVS Institute of Engineering and Technology. The test is being held in two shifts — morning and afternoon — and will continue till November 24, barring holidays and Sundays.

“Last year, my computer witnessed problems during log-in. I could not do anything for over 15 minutes. Thankfully, this time no such thing happened,” said Brijesh Kumar, an MBA aspirant in Ranchi.

Candidates were also pleased with the paper, saying the questions were easier than expected. “Reasoning was easy. The English section was the most difficult,” said Pinky Kumari, an employee at Allahabad Bank, Ranchi branch.

“The questions were good and unlike last year, I could answer them well. The pattern was similar, the questions easy and most importantly, the process went off smoothly. The only problem was that the centre was too far from the city,” said Satish Jaiswal, an employee of Tata Steel, who appeared for the exam at RVS Institute of Engineering and Technology.

“In 2009, Loyola School was the exam centre. It took me 15-20 minutes to reach it. This time, I had to leave home around 6.30am so that I could be on time,” complained Sudha Ramakrishnan, a graduate from Jamshedpur Women’s College.

In Ranchi too, the candidates and their guardians complained about the location of the exam centre. “The communication system here is very poor. There was no place to eat or take rest,” said G.P. Gupta of Patna whose daughter Shilpi took the test at Tatisilwai.

A number of CAT coaching centres in Jamshedpur agreed that the paper was up to the standard and the students were satisfied.