On Sunday, AFCAT exam for recruitment as Officers to Indian Air Force was conducted at 536 centres in 99 cities in India. It was successfully held at 450 centres, but 86 centres were hit by major technical snags resulting in the cancellation of AFCAT exams at these centres.
For the candidates who could appear in exam, answer keys of AFCAT 2018 have been made available. According to candidates, the paper was of moderate difficulty level and there were no surprises in terms of questions and pattern. The paper had questions on general awareness, verbal ability, numerical ability, reasoning and aptitude. Apart from AFCAT, the AFCAT EKT was also conducted. The Engineering Knowledge Test (EKT) is for candidates opting for Ground Duty (Technical) branch.
More than a hundred candidates were called at every centre. By that count, at least 8600 students were affected by the cancellation of paper. If the numbers were higher at any center then close to 10,000 students had to bear the brunt of technical issues.
As the problem was nationwide, CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) will issue an explanation. The online AFCAT 2018 was developed by IAF in collaboration with CDAC.
If this – AFCAT cancellation – had not happened, then there were high chances of AFCAT 2018 Result being declared by end of March. Now, result will inevitably be delayed. However, candidates can expect results within one month of the new AFCAT exam date.
The organizers have assured that those candidates who have been affected will get a chance to sit for the exam again. For them, a new exam date will be announced and fresh admit card for AFCAT 2018 will be issued.
New / re-exam for cancelled centres will be along the same lines as the test held on February 25.
As soon as reports started coming in on February 25 about the exam cancellation, candidates were thrown into confusion. It is the first time that the AFCAT was held online.
CDAC, the online exam conducting body for maiden online AFCAT was prompt in issuing a statement on its official website about exam being cancelled for AFCAT 01/2018.