advertisement
Video Editor: Rajbir Singh
Ever since the Common University Entrance Test has been declared mandatory, students and educators have been divided on how beneficial it would be. For students, however, the views depend largely on which state they are from and which board they belong to.
The UGC Chairperson had said that CUET would "mirror the Class XII syllabus," adding that students would have to prepare from the NCERT books. However, while CBSE students follow NCERT books, other boards have their own texts. CUET will have three parts, and will only consist of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ).
Mansi Sancheti, from Modern Public School, a CBSE school in Delhi, says that it comes as a huge relief for students as this would spare them the stress of sky-high cut-offs. Mansi wants to pursue BBA or BMS from Delhi University and is currently studying in the Humanities stream.
Meanwhile, Urja V, from CHM College (junior college) in Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra, which comes under the Maharashtra board, says that the CUET has both pros and cons. Foremost among the cons is the fact that they have never seen NCERT books before and will have to prepare from scratch.
She wants to pursue Psychology and will apply to a few colleges across the country, even though her preference is Mumbai University. Is the Syllabus Similar to Their Class 12 Syllabus?
While both students say that they would have to prepare for the test on short notice, Urja says that her syllabus is very different from what the NCERT books follow.
Mansi said that around 75 percent of the CUET syllabus is covered by the CBSE syllabus, while Urja said that around 35 percent of the syllabus matches hers.
Mansi says that she will have to prepare for the remaining subjects besides the domain knowledge subjects. These include logical reasoning and general knowledge.
She says that she has been practising a few logical reasoning questions every day, and is reading newspapers to stay updated with current affairs.
Meanwhile, a few students, particularly from state boards, have reached out to coaching classes. Urja said that when they reached out to classes, students were told that it would take some time for state board students to prepare.
Urja's board exams are going on and she will have three months to prepare for the common entrance test. However, CBSE students, whose boards will end in mid-June, will have less time to prepare.
Mansi said, "As a COVID batch, we have been through a lot of things in the last two years. There were a lot of challenges that we had to face. The CBSE changed the whole curriculum for our batch, everything was different for us. Class 12 was not as easy as it seemed to everyone outside."
Urja says that they usually do not score marks as high as CBSE and ICSE students and hence, the common examination would level the ground in some ways.
Mansi, on the other hand, said that they would no longer crumble under the pressure of sky-rocketing cut-offs.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)