DU admissions: Science students fear a raw deal after score normalisation

CUET used a process called the “equipercentile method”, which aimed to create the same scale for all candidates independent of which session they appeared in. It is on this scale that the scores were normalised, and universities are to take these normalised scores into account when they determine eligibility for admission

Days after the declaration of common university entrance test (CUET) results, students are concerned over the admission policy, which stipulates that merit lists will be prepared by varsities using normalised CUET scores and not percentiles. This, they believe, will prove a setback for them.

Outside Delhi University at Delhi North Campus. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Normalisation is a process for revising the score of one student in a way that it becomes comparable with the score of another. This becomes necessary when an examination in the same subject is held in multiple sessions, each with a different paper. If an exam was held in two sessions and the scores were not normalised, then the student who appeared in the easier of the two papers would have an advantage over the student who appeared in the tougher paper.

CUET used a process called the “equipercentile method”, which aimed to create the same scale for all candidates independent of which session they appeared in. It is on this scale that the scores were normalised, and universities are to take these normalised scores into account when they determine eligibility for admission.

The varsity will create a merit list based on a summation of the normalised marks of the papers that make up the eligibility criteria of a given programme.

Students, particularly science students, who wish to change streams, say the use of normalised scores was disadvantageous since the normalised score was low even for students who had secured a higher percentile.

Anirudh, a science stream student, said his normalised score was low while the percentile was on the higher side. The Gurugram resident fears that this would him put at a disadvantage.

“One cannot view the maths paper and political science through the same lens. There is a huge variation between the normalised score and the percentile. In political science, students with 95% percentile have scored 170 marks out of 200 whereas in maths, they are getting 95% percentile with 105 marks. This is a huge variation and a major disadvantage for students from the science stream,” said Anirudh who applied for BA(Hons) Economics.

He said there was no clarity on how the scores will be calculated and taken into account till the declaration of results. “I was under the impression that the varsity will use a percentile score and I may end up in a good college. Now I am not certain how the merit will work out. I have written an email to DU seeking clarity,” added Anirudh.

Zakaria Khan, a DU aspirant and science stream student, said, “My normalised score is less than the score I had expected. We were not told about the normalisation when we appeared for CUET, so there is some confusion and uncertainty. We have been told that a formula was used to arrive at the normalised score but the impact of normalisation will be known only when the merit list is out,” said Khan.

Naveen Gaur, DU faculty and academic council member, said it was important to make the normalisation process transparent so that students could understand how their scores were arrived at. “There needs to be a clear-cut methodology. Students should be able to figure out what their normalised scores will be. Before the exam, everyone thought that admissions will take place on the basis of percentile scores. Students should have been apprised about the details before the exam itself,” said Gaur

DU registrar Vikas Gupta said percentiles couldn’t be compared with normalised scores. “During the earlier admission procedure, when science or commerce students switched streams, DU deducted a certain percentage of marks. Now, we are not deducting anything. Even the comparison between normalised scores and percentile is unwarranted. We cannot compare apples and oranges. Percentile is simply an indicator of students’ performance when compared with others,” the registrar said.