| India’s top management institutes deciding to go online with the Common Admission Test (CAT) next year has given a lion’s power-punch to tcyonline.com, the country’s premier online testing website with a largest student-teacher platform. As a supplement to classroom learning, online education is likely to get a further fillip with this recent announcement. |  |
Banking on its rich reservoir of hundreds of thousands of free online tests, the company has heartily welcomed the IIMs’ decision and offers to train free all MBA aspirants in India through its website.
With close to 80,000 enrolments, tcyonline.com is virtually a household name in the country and the website takes pride in being the number one in CAT preparation after having already trained close to 22,000 MBA aspirants.
An online initiative of Top Careers & You (TCY), tcyonline.com also announces bonus for ‘eligible’ teachers and ‘customized’ exam preparation for every student in the country.
Mr. Kamal Wadhera, the CEO of the company, talks about his latest plans on online testing and his elite student-teacher platform, in an interview.
Excerpts:
Q. How would CAT going online affect the students and tcyonline.com?
Ans: First, I would say it is a welcome change and a step in the right direction. With the increase in number of students and test centres during the last couple of years, the change was quite anticipated, and seemingly had to be done. The major advantage I see is from the (CAT) organization side. Since the paper-based test was being conducted at so many locations, the chances of human error were very high. As the stakes in this exam are also very high, there were chances that a student may suffer because of some human error. There could be many internal and external factors, which would be taken care of now. Hopefully, the management of CAT would be highly standardized and structured, and much smoother on the lines of GRE and GMAT.
From the student’s perspective, the online CAT would be much more convenient, and they should feel much happy about it. Now since the test would be spread over almost 15 days, it would reduce students’ anxiety to a great extent. The new exam pattern would give a uniform environment and more flexibility to the students in terms of choosing their slots, the morning or evening. Online testing might face some teething troubles but would be very beneficial in the long run.
Q. Are you going to make any major changes on your site (www.tcyonline.com) now?
Ans: Yes, we will. In fact, we are quite delighted by the change. As they say, the future favours the prepared mind; we are already prepared. This year, we have already trained close to 22,000 students for MBA alone. I guess, if all the students of the entire nation are to make the CAT preparation and want to do free testing on tcyonline.com, they are more than welcome. We, tcyonline.com, are the first and the last name in MBA preparation in the online preparation mode. So, we have everything ready, tried and tested. We have analytics of hundreds of thousands of questions already attempted by the students. For example, students who would be attempting their tests this year have a great bank of pool against which they can benchmark themselves. Nobody else can provide that advantage.
Q Your student-teacher platform is very much in news these days. What’s latest on that?
Ans: Well, as more and more students are enrolling on our website every day, we are increasing the content too. With close to 80,000 students already registered on tcyonline.com till date, we need a huge content too. So, new content categories are being added to our platform. No wonder, we invited teachers online who could supplement our content. With the result, we have now a huge pool of experts from all over the nation who is uploading their content. We also have the editors who are checking the same in terms of quality and copyrights, etc. So, thousands of tests are being added every week. The encouraging part of the whole scenario is while the students are learning free; the teachers are also earning a lot!
Q. Are the online teachers happy with your revenue model?
Ans: Certainly, they are happy because it is highly lucrative. As a double delight, lately we have added bonus too to the revenue model, and many teachers are eligible for that. They have every reason to feel happy. Secondly, the teachers should remember that once students start using their tests they will be earning on and on, as long as their tests are being seen and attempted. Moreover, if the teachers have submitted their content at one area and they feel that can be used in multiple areas, we give them that advantage also. So, their income increases.
Q. The website is doing great. What other plans you have in mind?
Ans Very soon you would find analytics and reports that would be so sophisticated that the student will feel as if his preparation is customized according to his weak areas as per his requirements. That would be a great add-on. Soon you would see this change on the website (www.tcyonline.com).
Q. Any message for the students and teachers?
Ans: I would ask the students to do as many tests as they can, to benchmark against other students our benchmark against their own previous performance. To the teachers, who haven’t visited our site yet, I would say start uploading your content and see that you have a great authoring potential. Sometimes you don’t know about your potential. You write good questions and you get on a platter a launching pad for your skills through which you can grow a lot economically.
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