New Delhi: Over 8 lakh students appeared for the first set of exams as part of the maiden pan-India Common University Entrance Test (CUET) Friday. While the aspirants described the papers as easy, some hassle was reported at a few centres.
With 14.9 lakh students having registered for it, CUET is now one of the largest competitive exams held in the country — while 8.1 lakh students appeared for CUET-UG 2022 in Phase-1, another 6.8 lakh students will appear for it in Phase-2 in August.
Some students in Delhi complained about having to deal with a last-minute change in venue, while those in Mumbai and Pune had to brave incessant rain to appear for the exam. The CUET was cancelled at two centres in New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and one centre in Punjab’s Pathankot due to technical issues, according to news agency PTI.
“Students who have missed out on appearing for their exams for whatever reason will be given a chance to reappear during Phase-2 in August,” a senior official of the National Testing Agency (NTA), the agency conducting the test, told ThePrint.
University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar had told news agency ANI Thursday that some students who appeared for CUET-UG had requested a change in their examination centre and that such requests are being “considered”.
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‘Papers were easy’
The CUET-UG was held in examination centres across over 500 cities in India and 13 cities abroad.
A computer-based test, it is slated to be held in two sessions — morning (beginning 9 am) and afternoon (3 pm) between 15 July and 20 August. The question papers are divided into three parts. Students have to attempt 40 of 50 questions in the first two sections, and 60 of 75 questions in the third section.
Many students who were worried about the pattern of the question paper and the level of difficulty felt at ease after they were done with the morning session.
Anshika Solanki (17), who is applying for colleges in Delhi University, had a smile on her face as she came out of the examination centre. “The papers were easy, all the questions were from Class 11 and 12 NCERT books,” she told ThePrint.
Sonali, another student who said she was expecting difficult questions in the General Knowledge (GK) section, said most questions were based on historical events rather than current affairs.
“We had questions like who was the milkman of India, and on state capitals etc. The logical reasoning questions were easy as well. I was expecting the maths problems to be complicated but they were basic and not too difficult to solve,” Sonali said.
Change in exam venue leads to chaos
In Delhi, an exam venue was changed a night before, from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in Dwarka to Delhi University’s Sports Complex building in North Campus. Some students said they were informed about the change in venue Thursday night but others claimed they did not receive any such notification.
What ensued was confusion. The exam in the first slot, supposed to start at 9 am, was delayed by an hour after parents of children who reached the venue late demanded that they be admitted into the examination centre.
Nikita Rawat, 18, is one such student who had to rush from the Dwarka centre to the changed venue.
“We reached the Dwarka centre at 8.30 am but then we were informed regarding the change in venue. I thought I won’t be able to appear for the exam this year. My brother immediately rushed me to Delhi university but we got here pretty late. I am glad that other parents pushed the authorities to let us in,” she told ThePrint.
For 42-year-old Sushma Singh, a resident of Udaipur whose daughter appeared for the exam, booking a hotel room near the centre in Dwarka proved futile.
“We have come to Delhi just so that my daughter can appear for CUET. It was only by fluke that my daughter checked her mail again at 6.30 am. That’s when we found out that the venue had been changed,” Singh told ThePrint.
Asked about the complaints of mismanagement, the NTA official quoted above did not offer a comment.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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