Debut edition of CUET kicks off in 510 cities amid concerns

While over 200,000 students are expected to take the CUET exam on day one, i.e. today, a total of 1,490,000 students are set to appear for it till August 20

Rationalising content, prioritising subjects and last minute revisions – these were among strategies adopted by students a day before they were to appear for the first ever Common University Entrance Test for undergraduate admissions or CUET-UG on Friday. Some of these students will take as many as three to six exams on the same day.

CUET-UG will be conducted across 510 cities in India and abroad from Friday onwards. (HT file)

CUET-UG will be conducted across 510 cities in India and abroad from Friday onwards. While over 200,000 students are expected to take the exam on day one, a total of 1,490,000 students are set to appear for it till August 20.

The test is being conducted in a way that many students will have as many as six exams in a day, divided into two slots. As students and their parents demanded a change in schedule, the National Testing Agency (NTA) maintained that it was not possible to give equal breather to everyone as the slots were allocated using a computerised method.

A day before the test, several students and their parents said they were running against time.

Anisha Srivastava, a class 12 student, is appearing for CUET in three subjects – Mathematics, Sociology, and English – on Friday. A nervous Srivastava said she was poring over the syllabus and revising as much as she could before the “D-Day”. “I am very nervous. There is so much to revise. I am trying to divide my time across the three subjects and going through all the topics once again,” Srivastava said.

The 17-year-old said she had begun her revision last week with English, which has a relatively thinner curriculum than the other two subjects. Following the announcement of exam dates, she said she first picked up Mathematics for revision. Having completed her revision in the subject in the last few days, she hoped for a quick cursory revision with only a few hours left for the exam.

For Sociology, Srivastava said she had dedicated sufficient time for in-depth revision. “I am focusing on Sociology since the syllabus is vast. Some of the chapters that were deleted for the CBSE Term II exam are also included in the syllabus for the CUET exam. These chapters are completely new and we have not been tested on them before, so I’m ensuring that I don’t miss anything from these topics,” she said.

Pradeep Mishra, parent of another student appearing for four exams on Friday, said his son has rationalized the content and decided to only focus on that.

“It is impossible to revise the syllabus of four subjects in such a short time. My son has decided not to touch Mathematics at the last minute. Now, if he won’t perform better in Mathematics, he will not be able to apply for BCom (hons) for which Mathematics is mandatory for admission in many universities. He had to change his career priorities due to this CUET mess,” Mishra said.

Several students, who have five to six exams on Saturday, also said they have few hours left for last minute revisions.

Tanishka Singh, a candidate from Delhi, said she has six exams on Saturday. “The major issue is that we have to study the topics which were removed by the CBSE from our class 12 board syllabus as a part of their rationalising scheme in view of the pandemic. Revising everything and studying new topics in just four days is humanly impossible. I have asked for help from my school teachers. They have suggested to me important topics to focus on. In the absence of sample papers or last year papers, it feels like we are shooting in the dark,” she said.

School principals said students remained jittery and anxious over multiple papers and examination centres allotted to them. Tania Joshi, principal of the Indian School, said while the NTA had experience in conducting crucial exams, there was a cloud of uncertainty around the CUET exam due to which both parents and children were a little unsure.

“Students have been feeling betrayed because they were not aware that they will get such less time to revise everything. The idea behind the introduction of CUET-UG was to reduce students’ stress and anxiety. But the way in which it is being conducted has further made the situation stressful for students. Students are also stressed over the examination centres allotted to them. Some of our teachers have also sought leave for a day since their children have been allocated centres in far-flung areas,” Joshi said.

The CUET could have been launched as a pilot project initially, education experts said.

“We need to rethink the ambition of the CUET while retaining its value. This is why they needed to invest time in designing and piloting a solid set of exams that works for all. At this stage, it is difficult to address learning diversity with fewer combinations. But at the same time it is difficult to manage so many. This trade off has to be addressed by good assessment design and some pilots that give good data for deciding the ideal new design. For now, they have decided to take on the complexity which comes with its own challenges,” educationist Meeta Sengupta said.

Abha Dev Habib, an associate professor at Delhi University, said anything involving lakhs of students should not be rushed. “The government has moved in a very callous manner without any feedback mechanism and proper grievance redressal system. So many students have been raising concerns since the last three or four days but nothing has been considered by the NTA,” she said.

Officials in the ministry of education maintained that the evaluation will be done in a manner that no students will be put at disadvantage.

“The NTA will use the normalisation process which we are already using for JEE and other entrance exams. The students will be marked in percentile and therefore, relative performance of all candidates appearing in the same paper in the same session will be considered while marking,” a senior official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity.