The current situation of the ongoing pandemic has not only created an ambiguous situation for the students but also for the institutions across India. While the families are worried about the spread of infection, students are muddled about the current change in the admission criteria at the undergraduate level in different universities. The pressure is mounting and with every passing day, the students are getting restless. Recently a major change was seen amid the law aspirants with the announcement to conduct CLAT twice a year in 2022. While it was announced that CLAT will conduct the exam for the academic session 2022 and 2023 in 2022 itself, the Government of India suggested a common exam for admissions to all the central universities.
It is anticipated that the CUCET will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Recently, Delhi University has also hinted to conduct the admission process for the Academic year 2022 through CUCET and based on class XII marks, or will conduct their separate exam DUCET.
Recently, the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University also informed that the concerned team is working on this new development and when the basic things are done, a committee would be formed which will be in charge of framing a process on the execution, and coordinate with NTA and Education ministry. Experts believe that it’s a welcome decision of Delhi University and other universities to change the admission process as entrance exams are always a better medium to assess the students’ knowledge.
Though it is known that CUCET is not an entirely unfamiliar entrance test, the central universities have been conducting it until the last year for admissions. While the major difference would be that the earlier version of CUCET was conducted in the offline mode and now the proposal is to conduct the test as a Computer Based Test (CBT), which, with complete details of the exam, is expected to be revealed soon. The possible structure of CUCET would be a computer-based aptitude test to test the students on Verbal Ability, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and General Awareness. There will be a domain section also that may test the students on the subjective questions. The CUCET entrance test will be compulsory for the students who seek admission to all the universities.
The students should neither be sceptical about the paper nor about the process, instead believe that this change of conducting one exam is the change for good and will allow students to experience equal opportunity in the real sense. For this, students need to continuously strive towards honing their skills and understand the importance of aptitude building. The entrance exam like the CUCET will give not only an equal opportunity to all the students but also a chance to the universities to gauge the aptitude level of the students.
The writer is Ankit Kapoor, Co-founder & Director, Pratham Test Prep