The Central University Entrance Test, which is mandatory for undergraduate admissions to central universities in the country, is causing problems for candidates and their parents alike. A huge section of students are facing errors in CUET 2022 admit card and are nervous about the new exam pattern.
Roshni is one of those candidates who are facing similar difficulties. His access to computers was limited and now he is facing the daunting challenge of appearing online in an examination session of six and a half hours.
A total of 86 universities including Delhi University will take admission on the basis of CUET this year but lakhs of students are not sure about the exact pattern and question format.
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Around 15 lakh candidates are going to appear for the exam on Friday. India Today spoke to some of the students who are still trying to strategize for this computer-based exam. Samarth, a student of a government school in Jharkhand, told India Today that he is not sure about the computer-based test and how he will perform in different sessions.
He said, “In a classroom situation, we get used to answering on sheets. Even though we have worked with OMR sheets, we have never given such an online test.”
Different dates for the same subjects
One of the most common complaints is about the exam schedule. Students are complaining that the whole concept behind CUET was to provide a level playing field for all the boards.
Akshita, a student of a private school in Delhi, said she now has to appear for some subjects on Saturday. Meanwhile, her cousin’s sister will appear for similar subjects in August. He claimed that it was a loss as he hardly had time to prepare for the subjects.
Multiple topics in a single day
Akshat told India Today that though he can handle the long hours of the exam, he will have to prepare for several subjects for which the exam will be conducted on a single day.
Confusion about exam pattern
Though the National Testing Agency (NTA) has come up with some mock tests, students are unsure about the difficulty level and pattern of the question papers. In domain-specific subjects, the duration of the exam will be 45 minutes. A student has to answer 40 questions out of 50. A student can appear in a maximum of six domain-specific subjects, while a person can opt for two languages and a general test consisting of 75 questions of which a student has to answer 60 in an hour.
Many students, school teachers and parents have expressed apprehensions about the upcoming #CUET Flagging off short notice, confusion in admit card and splitting of exam into two phases. More in this report. #news today , @sardesairajdeep @kumar kunalmedia pic.twitter.com/o7RZCRodrk
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) 13 July 2022
During the pandemic, the curriculum for various subjects was reduced by 30%. Now students are not sure that this will happen.
Two sessions, two different exam centers
Many students have claimed that they have been allotted two different exam centers for two sessions. Student Hardik Vyas made Jaipur and Bikaner the center for the two sessions being held on the same day.
Though the UGC president on Tuesday claimed that 98 per cent students have been given the center of their choice, the students claim that this is not the case. Meanwhile the name of the center is missing on many admit cards.
The Common University Entrance Test (CUET), or CUET-UG, will be conducted from July 15 to August 10, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced last week.
A total of 44 Central Universities, 12 State Universities, 11 Deemed Universities and 19 Private Universities have applied for adopting CUET for UG admission in the academic session 2022-23.
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