What will the CUET paper be like? Do students need special coaching? All questions answered ahead of April applications

In a bid to overhaul the admission process for higher education, the University Grants Commission has introduced the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) , which is likely to be held in the first week of July. The application forms for the entrance exam will be available from 2 April, and 30 April will be the last date for applications. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct the exam, has advised candidates to go through the eligibility criteria of various undergraduate programmes by visiting the websites of universities they wish to apply to. After picking the course and zeroing on universities, they can visit the CUET website and submit their applications. The exam is digitised. As the application dates near, students are bogged down with questions about the newly introduced entrance exam. We look at some common queries. What is the CUET and who is eligible? The CUET is a mandatory examination that students have to give if they want to seek admission in any central university in India. The student must have scored a minimum of 50 per cent marks in Class 12 in the general category and 45 per cent marks in the SC/ST category to sit for the test. If any university permits students who have cleared Class 12 in previous years to take admission in the current year, they would also be eligible to appear in the CUET 2022. What will be the CUET syllabus? All questions in the test will be based on the Class 12 NCERT syllabus. “Students having studied Class 12 board syllabus would be able to do well in CUET UG 2022,” the NTA notice said. Will students have to take special coaching for the examination? Unlike IIT and NEET, special coaching is not required for the CUET. “Difficult questions drive people towards coaching centres, but in CUCET, the level will be moderated so that students are comfortable without special classes,” UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar. What is the CUET exam pattern? The test will be divided into four sections: Section 1A and Section 1B will be on languages, Section II will test students’ knowledge on their core subjects, and Section III will be on general knowledge. What are the language sections about? Section 1A and 1B will comprise papers on languages. Section 1A gives the option of 13 languages of which any one has to be chosen. It will test the candidates command over English or any of the other 12 languages – Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, or Odia. In Section 1B, there are 19 languages and any one apart from those offered in 1A can be picked. The 19 languages include French, Spanish, German, Nepali, Persian, Italian, Arabic, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Santhali, Tibetan, Japanese, Russian and Chinese. Students who want to pursue undergraduate programmes in foreign languages can pick from this section. The languages papers will require students to attempt comprehensions based on factual, literary, and narrative passages. There will also be questions in the MCQ format on the passages. What can students expect in Section 2? Section 2 tests students on the domain subjects that they want to pursue. There are 27 domain-specific subjects: Accountancy/ Book Keeping; Biology/ Biological Studies/Biotechnology/Biochemistry; Business Studies; Chemistry; Computer Science/ Informatics Practices; Economics/ Business Economics; Engineering Graphics; Entrepreneurship; Geography/Geology; History; Home Science; Knowledge Tradition and Practices of India; Legal Studies; Environmental Science; Mathematics; Physical Education/ NCC /Yoga; Physics; Political Science; Psychology; Sociology; Teaching Aptitude; Agriculture; Mass Media/ Mass Communication; Anthropology; Fine Arts/Visual Arts (Sculpture/ Painting)/Commercial Arts; Performing Arts – (i) Dance (Kathak/ Bharatnatyam/Odissi/ Kathakali/Kuchipudi/ Manipuri (ii) Drama- Theatre (iii) Music General (Hindustani/ Carnatic/ Rabindra Sangeet/ Percussion/ Non-Percussion); Sanskrit. A candidate can pick a maximum of six subjects. In this section, students have to attempt 40 out of 50 questions in 45 minutes. What’s Section 3 about? Section 3 is based on general knowledge. It is necessary for undergraduate courses that require admission based on a general test rather that scores of domain subjects, reports The Indian Express. In this question, there will be 75 questions of which 60 have to be attempted in an hour. There will be questions pertaining to current affairs and those which will test a candidates mental and numerical abilities, reports the newspaper. How many papers can a candidate pick? Every candidate can pick nine papers in two different combinations, according to the NTA. A student can choose two language papers from Section 1A and 1B, six domain subjects, and the general test. The other combination allows students to go for three languages, five core subjects, and the general test. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.