GMAT is just a click away

PUNE: Thousands of students from Pune and western Maharashtra, appearing every year for educational assessment tests like GRE, GMAT and Toefl will no longer have to travel to Mumbai. They can now take the tests on a new internet-based platform from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology's (MIT) women's engineering college in the city. While MIT is the second internet-based certified test administration site in India (the first such centre was set up in Delhi), principal P.D. Chidgupkar said the new test form is an upgrade from the conventional paper-based and computer-based system. A key highlight of this system is that students appearing will get their results immediately on the computer screen. Previously, they would have to wait for a fortnight to get the scores. According to Chidgupkar, the matter was first discussed with the Educational Testing Services (ETS) during the National Association of Foreign Students'Affairs (Nafsa) conference in Seattle last June. The ETS, which administers over 24 million tests every year in more than 181 countries at over 9,000 locations worldwide, has certified the MIT to conduct the tests. With seven laboratories and as many as 270 computers certified by the Princeton university-located ETS, MIT officials said the centre would cut down the long waiting time for the large number of students appearing for the tests every year.