Until recently, if you were to ask any junior college educator or student about the top undergraduate courses entrance exams in India, the answer would be the NEET and IIT/JEE. Sure, they were with about sixteen lakh and just over eight and a half lakh registrations, respectively. However, for those who wanted to pursue other courses, it was complex navigation through board exam scores, individual university entrance criteria, and other such parameters.
Well! It’s 2022, and thanks to the National Education Policy 2020 rollout, a new entrant has made it to the entrance exam space, namely the CUET (UG). More than nine lakh students have registered for it, making it the second-biggest entrance exam in India!
So, here is everything you should know about it.
What is CUET (UG)?
The Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate is a student-centric single-window admission test conducted twice a year. It is a part of the NEP 2020 policy initiative of the Ministry of Education, Government of India. Its objective is to facilitate merit-based student admissions into central universities and institutions. In its first year, eighty-seven universities and affiliated institutions are participating in this initiative.
How will students benefit?
There are several valuable benefits for the students as follows:
- The CUET syllabus is the standard class 12 syllabus, and students are not required to prepare for it separately, making it simple and stress-free.
- Standardisation eliminates the subjectivity of marks given by different boards due to the topology of questions and varying score patterns.
- The objective MCQ nature of the test will eliminate subjectivity and improve the quality of assessment and confidence in the results.
- Assured transparency since it is computer-based testing, evaluation, and results processing, without any human intervention
- Access to the test from all over India will ensure greater participation from rural and remote regions.
- A wide choice is available for students to select from – 27 subjects, 33 languages, and a general assessment.
- A diverse array of students from all regions and three national boards – CBSE, AICSE, and NIOS, can benefit from this test.
Participating universities and institutions
Presently, there are four types of universities participating, namely:
- Central universities like AMU and BHU
- State universities like the APJ Abdul Kalam University
- Deemed universities like TISS
- Private universities like IES and IIMT
As more universities and institutions come on board to participate, an updated list is available here for reference.
CUET(UG) eligibility, criteria, and sections
CUET(UG) Eligibility
Entrance into universities is for students who have passed the class XII examination from any recognised board or equivalent. The CUET Eligibility requires students to have passed their class 12 exam from:
- Any officially recognised board or equivalent
or
- Appearing for their class 12 exam in the current academic year
CUET(UG) test criteria
Students need to take a maximum of nine tests to be selected based on the following two criteria:
Criteria 1
- Two languages from section 1A and section 1B taken together
- Maximum 6 domain subjects from section 2
- General test from section 3
OR
Criteria 2
- Maximum 3 languages from section 1A and section 1B together
- Maximum 5 domain subjects from section 2
- General test from section 3
Note: 40/50 questions should be answered in 45 minutes for each language and domain-specific subject. 60/75 general test questions should be answered in 60 minutes.
CUET (UG) Sections
Section 1A
It has 13 language choices – Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Gujarati, Bengali, English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Assamese, and Urdu.
Section 1B
It has 20 language choices – Russian, German, Japanese, Persian, French, Spanish, Kashmiri, Nepali, Italian, Sindhi, Arabic, Konkani, Bodo, Maithili, Santhali, Dogri, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Manipuri, and Chinese.
Section 2
It has 27 domain-specific subjects:
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology/ Biological Studies/ Biotechnology/Biochemistry
- Mathematics
- Environmental Science
- Geography/Geology
- History
- Home Science
- Engineering Graphics
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Teaching Aptitude
- Mass Media/ Mass Communication
- Anthropology
- Accountancy/BookKeeping
- Computer Science/ Informatics Practices
- Agriculture
- Legal Studies
- Political Science
- Entrepreneurship
- Knowledge Tradition and Practices of India
- Physical Education/ NCC /Yoga
- Business Studies
- Economics/ Business Economics
- Performing Arts
- Music General (Percussion, Non-Percussion, Carnatic, Hindustani, Rabindra Sangeet)
- Dance (Kathak, Manipuri, Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathakali)
- Drama Theatre
- Fine Arts or Visual Arts – Painting, Sculpture, and Commercial Arts
- Sanskrit
Section 3
It tests your general knowledge, current affairs, ability – mental and numerical, reasoning – quantitative, logical, and analytical.
There is a lot more information available on the CUET official website for undergraduate courses that you can find here.
How to succeed at CUET(UG)
Being a new entrance exam, here are some valuable tips to excel in CUET for undergraduate students:
- Get familiar with the CUET(UG) end-to-end process
- Thoughtfully select the nine test subjects based on your interests and university admission criteria
- Start preparing early on, preferably when in school
- Join institutions providing an in-house integrated program to prepare for boards and competitive exams
Tip for schools
Prepare your school for an in-house school integrated program(SIP) to increase your student enrolments and success rates in boards and entrance exams.At H&K Edvisers, we have assisted many schools in successfully developing and deploying their integrated curriculum for boards and competitive examinations. These include CUET(UG), IIT-JEE, NEET, NIFT, NATA, NID for grades 11 and 12, Olympiads, NTSE, and KVPY for grades 6 to 10.
Share your thoughts about CET (UG) below. Have any questions? Leave those as well and we’ll help you out.