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CET: unexpectedly ‘tough and lengthy’ pair of question papers

Staff Reporter

They had more questions from I PUC syllabus

95 p.c. attendance on second day of CET
Most students felt the two-day format made the examination relatively ‘stress-free’

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Being tested: Lakshmeesha (right), who is temporarily visually impaired, going through CET test with the help of a scribe in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE: The students, who appeared for the Common Entrance Test 2009 on Thursday, came out of their examination halls apprehensive about the outcome of an unexpectedly “tough and lengthy” pair of question papers. Both the Chemistry and Physics papers had nearly 5 per cent more questions from the I Pre-University Course syllabus this time.

With 95 per cent attendance registered on the second day, the all-important CET 2009 was conducted smoothly, with the exception of three cases of impersonation booked in Mysore and Tumkur districts.

Students, and their equally anxious parents, heaved a sigh of relief, even as they pointed out that there was no time to rest. “I have to start preparing for the COMED-K. I did not do too well this time, so the UGET is all the more crucial,” said Manasu Chandra, who took the examination at St. Anne’s Pre-University College. The UGET will be held on May 17.

Amid the crowd of students emerging from the examination centre at Seshadripuram Composite PU College was a young, injured and temporarily visually impaired student, N.L. Lakshmeesha. His scribe, provided by the Karnataka Examination Authority, helped him write the paper.

“It was very difficult because I had to explain the diagrams and calculations. To top that, the test paper was also tough,” he said. Another injured candidate Nagendra Bhat wrote the test at National College, Basavangudi.

Most students said that the two-day format made the examination relatively “stress-free”.

Y.K. Jayaramappa, professor at BASE, a leading coaching centre chain, said that the numerical questions in the Chemistry paper were of a completely fresh pattern, and even lengthy.

“We expected that the number of questions from I PUC syllabus would increase. Usually there are only one or two application-based questions, but this time there were five,” he said, and added that an average student could easily score 40 marks. M.R. Dasharathi, physics professor at BASE, said the paper was “moderate in difficulty level”.

“The number of questions from I PU syllabus increased from the usual 15 to 21 this time,” he said. While 30 per cent of the questions were short and memory-based, conceptual questions accounted for 18 per cent. “Nearly 5 per cent of the questions required a higher order of thinking,” he said.

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