The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday began issuing admit cards for the first phase of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) that starts on July 15. The admit cards for the second phase, which starts on August 4, will be issued on July 31.
The clarity on the issue of admit cards has calmed the nerves of over 14 lakh candidates who have registered to take the CUET for the first time to seek undergraduate admissions to over 90 universities.
The Chairman of the University Grants Commission, M. Jagadesh Kumar, said the admit cards were released only three days before the examination to keep the “examination secure”. He called this a common practice with the NTA.
“Focus on your examination and don’t be anxious. The syllabus of the CUET is going to be restricted to the Class XII board examination, which will be fresh in your minds,” Mr. Kumar told students in a video statement.
The Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh told The Hindu that the university will begin its counselling process in the last week of August or the first week of September, as it expects the NTA to release the results by then.
“This is the first time that students are appearing for the CUET so there is bound to be some anxiety but students need to focus on appearing for the examination and can be assured that NTA is a competent agency to conduct such an examination,” Mr. Singh said.
He added that, unlike the JEE, the students appearing for CUET could choose from a number of subject combinations with which they are familiar.
The NTA said that the candidates have applied for 54,555 unique combinations of subjects and due to the large number of subjects, a unique date sheet for every individual candidate has been created.
Free coaching
On Tuesday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia interacted with the students of Delhi government schools availing free CUET preparatory classes offered by the government.
“Many of the Delhi government school students wanted to prepare for the entrance examination but could not afford high coaching fees. The Kejriwal government, under a unique initiative, has ensured that all the aspiring students are provided support at the school level itself so that they don’t give up their dreams because of financial constraints,” Mr. Sisodia said.
