'Universities to use 'normalised' CUET scores for merit lists'

New Delhi: After the Common University Entrance Test results were declared, UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar on Friday said universities will prepare rank lists for undergraduate admissions on the basis of "normalised" scores and not percentile or "raw marks".

Kumar told that the scores have been normalised to provide a level playing field for students who wrote the exam in the same subject on different days or in different shifts.

The results for the debut edition of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG were declared earlier in the day.

"The rank lists will be prepared by universities using normalised NTA (National Testing Agency) scores and not on the basis of percentile. The scores have been normalised to provide a level playing field for students since they wrote test in the same subject on different days," Kumar said.

"Normalisation of CUET scores has been done separately for each subject for which the exam was held in multiple shifts," he added.

The normalisation formula using the "equipercentile method" has been decided by a panel comprising professors from Indian Statistical Institute, IIT Delhi and Delhi University.

"How can we compare the performance of different students on a common scale without normalising? We need to ensure that the admissions are made based on a score that accurately compares the performance of students," Kumar said.

"In entrance tests such CUET-UG, since the test is conducted on different days and in multiple sessions for the same subject, it will give rise to multiple percentiles for each group of students," he added.