A student's life is dotted with several nerve-wrecking examinations, and those who believe that the hardships end after the completion of college can be unequivocally called delusional.
Although a significant bulk of strenuous board examinations end after college, students have another difficulty waiting for them: the university entrance examination.
Admission to a prestigious university in India is not an easy endeavor and requires long hours of hard work, practice, and unflinching dedication.
The university entrance exam is known as CUET, and this article delves into all one needs to know about its scope, the number of universities it includes, and the exam criteria.
Let's get started!
What is CUET?
CUET, formerly known as CUCET, stands for the Central Universities Entrance Test, which encompasses admission to 45 prestigious universities in India for the academic session 2022 to 2023.
Students who wish to obtain entry to these universities are required to take this exam and pass it with flying colors to secure a seat on the basis of merit. The exam date has been announced and is likely to happen in the first week of July.
The online website for this exam started accepting online applications on 2nd April, and this portal is expected to remain functional till 30th April 2022.
The Central Universities Entrance Test is not a relatively new notion, as its recent avocation under the 2020 National Education Policy seems to show.
The test was first conducted for admission to seven central universities in India, and students contested about 1500 seats in undergraduate, integrated, and postgraduate courses in 2010.
The scope of this exam has now augmented to 45 universities, with thousands of seats under its wing.
The notion of a common entrance test and its widespread applicability at the undergraduate level was primarily to shift the focus from rote learning and different methods of admission in different institutes to developing the critical thinking abilities of aspirants and allowing them a fair chance of securing a highly sought after seat.
How Many Universities Fall Under CUET?
Twelve central universities, including the Assam University, University of Haryana, University of Karnataka, University of Kerala, etc., fell under the wing of CUET till the academic year 2021-2022.
However, the policy underwent a change in 2022, which brought 45 central universities under its scope. The National Testing Agency (NTA) is the primary examination conducting authority for this exam.
It is expected that board examination results would not play a crucial role in CUET or make up the criteria for admission. However, universities have the flexibility to choose their respective eligibility criterion for admission.
For instance, one university may declare 60% marks in the board examinations to be the minimum admission requirement, whereas others may altogether waive this necessity.
This common test would also ensure that students hailing from different boards attain admissions on the same footing, as no uniformity is generally observed across the various boards in the nation awarding Class 12th marks.
Students always fall prey to concealed discrimination based on the board exam results of Class 12th across different boards, which results in unequal opportunities for them in prestigious institutions.
Therefore, the CUET exam is welcomed as a much-needed change due to its metamorphosis of the conventional academic paradigm to a more balanced exam pattern based on comprehensive skills, critical thinking abilities, conceptual understanding, and decision-making abilities.
This reformative endeavor is bound to reduce the immense stress on students, colleges, and universities alike, by imparting considerable objectivity to the educational system.
This test is expected to make the admissions process more streamlined and student-friendly by allowing students to appear in a single umbrella examination held at the national level.
What Is The Exam Criteria For CUET 2022?
The CUET exam 2022 will be divided into three segments. The first exam segment would focus primarily on the language, whereas the second would emphasize particular subject-specific domains that would comply with the fields students are seeking admission in.
The third segment will be based primarily on general ability.
The first segment, or the language segment, is further subdivided into subsections, the details of which are as follows:
Section 1A- comprising 13 language papers
Section 1B- comprising 19 language papers
Students aiming to graduate in a particular language would have to opt for a language paper from Section 1B. A student is allowed to choose a maximum of any three languages from Sections 1A and 1B together.
The second segment, or the domain-specific section, comprises 27 subjects. Students have to choose a maximum of six subjects for examination.
In case a subject is not mentioned in the list, students are advised to opt for one that most closely resembles the subject of their choice. For instance, students looking to attain admission in biotechnology may opt for the biology subject.
This domain-specific exam would include questions from NCERT.
The third segment, or the general capability test, will include questions from broad domains such as current affairs, general knowledge, quantitative reasoning, logical and analytical reasoning, and general mental ability.
Students must keep in mind that choosing options from each segment is not necessary, and the choice must be at par with the requirements posed by desired universities.
In addition, students must choose the subjects and language which they have already studied for the board examinations of Class 12th. In case a university offers flexibility in this regard, the same leniency will be observed in CUET.
Therefore, students should keep checking the websites of their desired universities to remain up to date with any changes that may occur.
Best of luck to the students appearing in this exam!
