new delhi: When she applied for DU's MA Psychology and MA Applied Psychology courses, little did 21-year-old Port Blair resident Shruti Parthasarathy know that she would miss her exams, even after considerable preparation. Having completed her Bachelor's degree from DU as well, continuing her education at the varsity was a natural choice for her.
However, a combination of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, fear of exposing herself to risk, and a lack of reaction/ preparation time resulted in Parathasarathy having to skip the DU Entrance Test, much like many other students across the country.
"We have one flight (from Port Blair to Delhi) once a week, only on Wednesdays. And the quarantine rules in Delhi are 7 days for incoming domestic flights. DU admit cards were released 15 days prior to the exam. I didn't even know my center, so I couldn't really book any tickets even if I wanted to in advance. And with the home quarantine, I didn't know how I'd be able to manage to reach Delhi on time, quarantine myself and then give the exam", she said.
Parthasarathy has taken admission in Amity University now, which conducted online exams. 22-year-old Jaipur resident Saumya Datta had also applied for the same exams, but she will only appear for one and has chosen to skip the other. "I live with four high-risk individuals. My father is a heart patient, one grandmother is more than 80-years-old, another is completely paralysed and my grandfather has chronic leukemia (blood cancer)". As such, Datta feels that she does not want to expose herself to any more risk of contracting the virus than is absolutely necessary. While she will appear for her M.A Psychology exam which is in the same city (Jaipur) on the 10th, she is skipping the M.A Applied Psychology exam on the 7th for which her centre is in Dwarka, in Delhi.
Datta added that conducting the exam in three shifts per day was too much. "And those without personal cars, God be with them," she said.
Similarly, 18-year-old Udai Sareen from Ludhiana, Punjab will be travelling 100 km in his personal car to appear for his DU JAT (Joint Admission Test) on the 7th but admits that it might not be so convenient for everyone.