NTA to conduct retest for over 1,000 CUET-UG candidates on July 19
New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced a retest for over 1,000 candidates of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG on July 19. This decision comes after several grievances were raised by students regarding the conduct of the exam, prompting the NTA to take corrective measures.
On July 7, the NTA had released the provisional answer key for CUET-UG 2024 and stated that retests would be scheduled between July 15 and 19 if any grievances were found valid. While the retest schedule was announced on Sunday, there has been no update on the declaration of the final results, which have already been delayed by over two weeks. The final answer key has yet to be notified.
According to NTA sources, one of the primary reasons for the retest is the distribution of question papers in languages not opted for by the candidates. This issue has affected candidates across six states. "Some of the grievances include time loss due to the distribution of wrong question papers," a source revealed.
Among the affected candidates, 250 are from Oasis Public School in Hazaribagh which is currently under scrutiny for the alleged leak of NEET-UG question papers.
The official notification issued on Sunday stated that grievances received from candidates up to June 30, 2024, as well as complaints sent to [email protected] between July 7-9 (before 05:00 pm), have been reviewed. “Based on these grievances, a re-examination will be conducted for those affected candidates on July 19, 2024, in the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode,” the notification confirmed.
The distribution of wrong question papers also occurred during the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 5, resulting in NTA initially granting grace marks due to the time loss. However, following protests and litigation in the Supreme Court, the agency cancelled the grace marks and offered an optional retest for 1,563 candidates, with 813 attending the exam on June 23.
The CUET-UG results were initially scheduled for release on June 30 but have been delayed amid allegations of paper leaks involving NEET-UG, UGC-NET, and CSIR-UGC-NET. “Initially, it was decided that the results would be announced for the rest of the candidates before the retest and subsequently for the rest. However, we are now yet to take a final call on the same,” a source added.
This year, the CUET-UG exam was conducted in a hybrid mode for the first time across the country. The exam in Delhi was cancelled a night before the scheduled day due to logistical reasons and was conducted later.
The NTA had previously announced that the third edition of CUET-UG would be completed in seven days, with no normalisation of scores as all exams would be conducted in a single shift. For 15 subjects, the tests were held in pen-paper mode, while for the remaining 48 subjects, the exam was conducted in computer-based mode.
Over 13.4 lakh candidates registered for the common entrance test for admission to undergraduate courses in 261 central, state, deemed, and private universities this year. In the first edition of the exam in 2022, technical glitches plagued the test, and scores had to be normalised due to tests for a subject being conducted over multiple shifts.
The NTA’s prompt action in addressing grievances and scheduling a retest reflects its commitment to ensuring a fair and transparent examination process for all candidates. with agency inputs
