The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday started the registration process for the common university entrance test for undergraduate admissions, or CUET-UG 2024, and announced key changes in the test this year, including a switch from a computer-based to a hybrid mode exam, and reduction in the number of subjects a candidate may choose.
HT on February 18 reported that the agency will be introducing these changes in the entrance examination for undergraduate university courses from this year.
According to the notification issued by NTA, the last date of filling in the form is March 26, and the test will be conducted between May 15 and May 31. The agency has announced June 30 as the tentative date for declaring results, subject to the schedule of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
On the hybrid mode, officials said that for subjects having a high number of registrations, the exam will be conducted in pen and paper mode using the optical mark recognition (OMR) format, and for others it will continue to be computer-based.
“NTA will decide which exams to be conducted in pen and paper mode once the registration process is completed,” said NTA director general Subodh Kumar Singh.
The agency has also reduced the maximum number of subjects a student can choose from 10 to six. “It will help the agency to conduct the exam of one subject on one day. Therefore, the process of normalisation of marks scored by the students over different shifts on different days in a subject will not be required this time,” Kumar said.
The agency will conduct examinations in 33 languages and 27 subjects. Besides, it conducts a general test for any undergraduate programme being offered by universities where a General Test is being used for admission.
The exams will be conducted in 13 languages i.e. English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Like last year, the examination will be conducted on multiple days in two or three shifts, depending on the number of candidates and subject choices. The candidates will be allowed to opt for a maximum of four cities as their options for examination centres.
Meanwhile, the agency on Tuesday also announced the schedule for CUET exam for post graduate admissions that will be conducted in computer-based format in India and abroad from March 11 to March 28.