How many times did you get surprised to notice a merit list ending on a score of 98? Many a time. This is a quite usual phenomenon that has been doing the rounds since quite a few years now, especially in DU colleges. There was a time when securing around 80s required quite a tough grind but today a score of 90 is not considered an uphill battle. Every year we notice the pressure that candidates with comparatively less marks undergo during engineering admissions or any other graduate (honours) program.

As a result of these exhausting cut offs and admission procedure, the HRD ministry reduced the requirement of the Class XII scores to ease the pressure borne by the IIT aspirants. Previously, the conditions stated that a candidate needed to score a 75% score in their JEE examinations as that was the most fundamental requirement or they needed to be among the topmost 20% scorers in their Board examinations. The tremendous dependence on the higher secondary exam’s scores has paved the way for the Boards to over emphasize on boosting the scores and the colleges surging the cut-offs to altogether another level. A hopeful realization and decision was instrumented by MCI, AICTE and certain noteworthy law schools where they agreed on a specific admission test for all the incoming applications, thereby disqualifying the over-dependency over the higher secondary exam scores.

The Ministry of Education has decided on planning a single admission test in accordance with the New Education Policy 2020 for the graduate (honours) programs. From one of the Times of India report it has been derived that the 2021-22 will give rise to a new common admission test for all the central universities as arranged by a 7 member committee. The main notion of this common admission test in making is having the candidates prepare on a common ground and be treated as eligibility criteria. The National Testing Authority would give rise to an admission test comprising general proficiency component and the subject proficiency part too.

In accordance with the arrangement of the SAT exam in the US, this new admission test will also be conducted twice a year though the upcoming 2021-22 academic year will witness it once.

The triggering part for the reason behind making of the new admission test is witnessing the ridiculous rise in the cut offs. Delhi University noticed a 90% cut off for their Economics honors program which has halted to 98% in the present time. COVID-19 has drastically crumbled the education system but the higher secondary exam scores have not experienced any downward curve. In 2019 the percentage of students obtaining around 90% was 94,000 which have taken a huge leap to 1.6 lakh in 2020. Another upward trend is noticed in students obtaining greater than 95% which has increased from 2.18 to 38, 688 in 2020.

All these issues boost the reasons to form a common admission test just like the Scholastic Aptitude Test or SAT but persuading the universities is an arduous task since there is a myriad of programs. It is only the Central University of Rajasthan that has been running the Central Universities Common Entrance Test or CUCET for around a decade now, but only 14 central universities and 4 state universities implement this for their admission process. Though, the biggies like Delhi University or BHU don’t fall under the umbrella of 14 universities.

To sum it up, a common admission test will not only gear up the admission mechanism but will also highlight the names of the lesser known universities who have been trying to popularize their names. This will additionally aid those lesser known universities to engage the students and also upscale the placement opportunities.