New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) Over 6,500 students, who could not take the computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) due to technical glitches last year, re-appeared in the exam, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) said Sunday.

'The phase two was smooth and ended successfully,' S. Roy, head of Prometric India that conducted the first ever online version of CAT, told IANS.

The first phase of CAT 2009 was conducted from Nov 28 to Dec 8, 2009.

But several thousands faced technical glitches and could not take the test, forcing the the country's premier IIMs to hold a second phase test Jan 30-31.

According to the IIM's CAT committee, the test was conducted over 26 centres across the country Sunday. The results will be declared in the third week of February.

A total of 241,000 students had applied for CAT in 2009. However, 216,000 aspirants had appeared in the first phase.

Both IIMs and Prometric, the US headquartered firm, blamed virus attacks, and some hardware problems for the online CAT missing a great beginning.

Currently there are seven IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, and Shillong. At least four new IIMs are expected to start during the coming academic year. CAT score is the basis for an entry into these prestigious B-Schools.

Scores of other institutes too give admission based on CAT score card.