Poor marks in Eng pulls down Commerce cut-offs

The low performance of public school students in CBSE Class XII English paper has forced Sri Ram College of Commerce to lower its BCom (H) cutoff, reports Swaha Sahoo.

The low performance of public school students in CBSE Class XII English paper has forced Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) to lower its BCom (H) cutoff. SRCC has slashed its cutoff by .25 per cent (94.5 from 94.75 last year).

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"This is a fallout of the poor performance of Delhi students in Class XII CBSE exam. We saw that most had secured high marks in their subjects but their average suffered because of English," said PC Jain, principal, SRCC. "Even a .25 per cent dip means that more than 50 students can be accommodated in that bracket," said Jain.

He added that Delhi students were already losing out due to all-India competition. Moreover, the cutoff had reached saturation point, he said. "You cannot expect the cutoff to go beyond this. Students are already securing high marks and it's time to give them a break," Jain said.

Both Hindu and Hans Raj have decreased their cutoff for commerce students to 94 per cent. While Kirori Mal College has decreased BCom (H) cutoff by 2 per cent to 92 per cent, Ramjas has marginally increased it by .5 to 93.5 per cent.

The college is also taking into account the number of students applying for CA. "From this year the students doing CA cannot attend classes in regular colleges where the college timings clash with the institute's. So we expect some students to withdraw after the CA entrance results are out," Sahni said, adding that last year one-fourth of commerce students at Hans Raj qualified for CA.

In contrast, Lady Sri Ram College has hiked its cutoff for almost all courses. B Com (H) cutoff has soared from 94 per cent in 2007 to 95.5 per cent this year. Sri Venkateswara College has increased cutoff by .5 to 94.5 per cent. "Last year we had reasonable cutoffs and over admitted students. But with limited infrastructure and more students we have declared a higher cutoff and are willing to come out with a second list," said Kanika Khandelwal, media coordinator, LSR.

However, BCom Programme cutoff has increased across all colleges from .25 in Guru Govind Singh College of Commerce to a whooping 8 per cent in Maitreyi College.

Humanities

BA (H) Economics is the only other programme that matches BCom (H) in popularity and demand. LSR has the highest cutoff at 94 per cent for humanities and science students. For Commerce students it is a staggering 98 per cent. To get into BA (H) Economics at Sri Venkateswara students will need 94 per cent with Economics.

However, SRCC has decreased economics cutoff by .25 per cent to 92.75 for humanities students and 95.75 for commerce students. Hans Raj College has also reduced cutoff by .25 to 92.5 for science and humanities students. "Instead of decreasing the cutoff by .5 per cent in the second list we want to fill our seats in the first list itself," said principal SR Arora.

Hindu has increased its cutoff from 92 per cent to 93.25 for humanities students. Others have increased their cutoffs from .25 to 2 per cent. IP College, which was unable to fill seats after the first cutoff for economics in 2007, has reduced cutoff to 91.5 per cent from 92.75 last year.