The Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET UG), which has only been offered online for the past two years, will now take place in a hybrid format to enable applicants—especially those from rural areas—to take the test in a more convenient location. This information was obtained by The Indian Express.
It has been learned that registration for the test, which will be administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on behalf of the UGC, is anticipated to start on February 19.
The format, number of subjects permitted, and difficulty level of the third exam edition, which is set to take place between May 15 and May 31, will all see significant modifications, according to senior NTA and UGC officials.
According to UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar, OMR sheets will be used for the test in place of the Computer Based Test (CBT) format for subjects with higher registration.
“We will introduce OMR (in multiple choice question format) for the subjects where the percentage of registrations will be higher. This will enable us to administer the exam for those particular subjects to all applicants nationwide in a single day and shift. Similar to other exams like NEET, we will be able to use a number of schools, colleges, and educational institutions as exam halls. “Students will benefit from this, especially those who live in rural areas, as they won’t have to travel to distant locations for the exam,” the speaker stated.
About 28 lakh applicants took the CUET UG last year, with Uttar Pradesh receiving the most applications.
On the day of the exam, there will be three shifts: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. Kumar claims that the hybrid format will also result in fewer “exam days.” In response to a question about whether this will eliminate the possibility of using the normalization process for result calculation, Kumar stated that a decision on this will be made as the circumstance demands.
The selection of subjects available to candidates will be reduced from ten to six. NTA data, according to Kumar, indicated that a small percentage of students selected all ten subject options. For some students, the sheer volume of options was also creating technical challenges when it came to choosing their exam locations.
The distribution of centres became exceedingly intricate since very few students were selecting from the wide range of options. We will only allow students to take six test papers in this CUET UG, which will include the general test, two languages, and three domain subjects, according to our data, which indicates that most students were only taking four or five papers, said Kumar.
According to Kumar, the NTA is also working to ensure that the CUET UG 2024 difficulty level is maintained at a moderate level to prevent stress among students.
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