CATE’s boss: Rush for English test forms

Chance of securing admission in English (Honours) at some of the best colleges irrespective of one’s Class XII performance led to a great rush for CATE forms on Monday, reports Ritika Chopra.

Chance of securing admission in English (Honours) at some of the best colleges irrespective of one’s Class XII performance led to a great rush for CATE forms on Monday.

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A serpentine queue materialised in front of Room no. 52 at Arts Faculty the moment it opened to sell forms for Combined Aptitude Test for English (CATE).

The rush translated into an impressive sale of 900 forms by the end of the day. “I scored 74 per cent in English in my CBSE results. I am interested in literature and my marks don’t reflect that,” said Karan Khanna (17), a candidate.

“I am glad that we have this common entrance test. I now stand a chance to get admission in good colleges like Hindu,”

This year, the entrance examination is the single channel to secure a seat in English (Honours) at twelve DU colleges. Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Kamla Nehru College, Hindu College and Indraprastha College are those affiliated to CATE.

The test is scheduled on June 17 and will be held across four centers. The application process for students, however, turned out to be confusing as the English department announced slightly different criteria of application on Monday.

“There’s nothing mentioned about how one should calculate the best-of-four aggregate. Plus why make us apply through the CATE and the common admission form. I had read earlier that one form was good enough for all the 12 colleges,” said Gurpreet Singh (17), a student.