Multiple exams on same day, ‘difficult’ mock tests — debut CUET has many students worried

The Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate students will be held between 15 July and 20 August. An estimated 14.9 lakh students have registered for the test.

Representational image of Delhi University students | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: Vijay Bharti, a 17-year-old Delhi University aspirant, is worried. On Saturday, she will be appearing for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for undergraduate students in five subjects.

Her complaint: Not only did she come to know of the examination date only five days before the test — when she received the admit card on 11 July — but she is daunted by the fact that she will be tested on all five subjects she chose for CUET in one day.

Bharti is among the 14.9 lakh students who have registered for CUET 2022 — a single-window entrance exam for admission to undergraduate (UG) programmes offered in any of the 45 University Grants Commission (UGC)-funded central universities, besides state universities and other institutes.

The exam will be held between 15 July and 20 August, in 547 cities within India and in 13 cities outside, including in Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE and Kuwait. A computer-based test, the question paper will follow the multiple choice question pattern.

Question papers are divided into three parts. While students have to attempt 40 out of 50 questions in the first two sections, the third requires 60 of 75 questions to be attempted.

Registration for the exam was opened on 2 April. While the duration of examination for most subjects is 45 minutes, the general knowledge test is an hour long.

The exam schedules have been divided into two slots — 9 am to 12.15 pm and 3 pm to 6.45 pm.

“The fact that I have only five days to prepare for the CUET is giving me sleepless nights. Our CBSE Class 12 exams ended only in June and I have been preparing ever since, but I don’t feel ready yet,” said Bharti.

She added: “I have never appeared for five papers on a single day. I don’t know how I will finish all of them on time. The fact that the mock paper that I have been practising from has a lot of questions that seem to be out of syllabus is adding to my worries.”

Envisaged as part of the National Education Policy (NEP), the CUET hopes to curb the problem of high cut-offs and make admission a level playing field for all students.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) — an autonomous agency set up to conduct entrance exams for higher education institutions — is in charge of drawing up the question papers and conducting the exam. This year marks the debut of CUET.

However, issues such as same dates for all the constituent papers, distant exam centres, and “difficult questions” in mock papers have students on the edge.

ThePrint reached NTA director general Vineet Joshi on email for a comment on the grievances being raised by students, but received no response until the time of publishing this report.

However, University Grants Commission Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar weighed in on concerns about exam centres. “Some students who are appearing for CUET-UG have requested for change of examination centre. Requests for change of centres are being considered by NTA and students need not feel anxious about it,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

According to the NTA, students have applied for admissions in 86 universities, including central, state, deemed and private. Candidates can take the test in any of the 13 mediums being offered, and select any combination from 33 languages and 27 subjects.

NTA data shows each candidate has applied for more than five universities.

Students, parents voice worry

For Meghna Rawat, 18, the challenge is preparing for the exam. She said she didn’t have the confidence to compete with students who had been attending coaching classes.

“Some of the words and concepts used in the English language paper are completely new (to me). If the syllabus turns out to be from outside our textbooks, I don’t know how I will be able to get a decent rank,” said Rawat, who will be taking her first exam on 5 August.

NTA Director General Vineet Joshi had told ThePrint earlier that questions in the CUET will only be based on Class 12 syllabus and will use the “model syllabus” — comprising questions from both the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and state boards.

Joshi had said it will test the basic knowledge level of students, whatever they have learnt in Class 12, and will need no extra preparation.

But the question paper is only one of the worries for candidates. Many candidates and their parents have voiced concerns over logistical issues, like too many tests in one day and the commute to centres.

As part of the registration process, students submitted a list of preferred examination centres. However, some students and their families claim that the centres allotted to them were not among their top preferences.

The mother of an 18-year-old student in Delhi said distance is a big worry.

“The centres allotted to my son were his fourth preference. Neither of the two centres is close to our house. He has exams on 19 and 20 July. One centre is in Faribabad’s Manav Rachna Institute of Science and Technology and the other is in an engineering college in Dwarka,” she said.

“It seems like there has been no consideration for students at all,” she said, adding that the “whole exam is being mismanaged”.

Paper pattern

The CUET examination papers will be divided into three parts, with the first section being a test on languages, for which students can pick one of 13 options, including English and 12 Indian languages. Questions will be based on reading comprehension, verbal ability, and grammar, among others.

For the second section, students will be required to answer questions on one to four domain-specific subjects, such as accounting, bookkeeping, history, economics or geography.

The third part will have two subsections, with the first involving a general test for vocational and open eligibility programmes — where students will be tested on their general knowledge, awareness of current affairs, general mental ability, and logical and analytical reasoning.

The second sub-part will be an additional language test, optional, for which students will be tested on their knowledge of one of 13 languages such as French, Spanish, German, Konkani, Bodo, Nepali, Persian, Italian, Tibetan, Japanese. This is for students seeking admission in language degree courses.

“The exam is new and so is the paper pattern. Although schools have been trying to help us by conducting mock tests, there still remains a lot of ambiguity regarding the exam and the question style,” said Bharti. “It feels like we are being experimented on, there are no seniors or teachers who can guide us.”

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)