Students have alleged several irregularities in the provisional answer key for the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate, or CUET-UG exam, The Hindu reported on Monday.
The allegations began to emerge hours after the answer key for the entrance test was released by the National Testing Agency on Sunday.
The answer key was scheduled for release on June 30, but this was delayed by the agency to avoid any errors, NDTV reported.
The National Testing Agency, which conducts the test, has been in the middle of a row concerning alleged irregularities and paper leaks in two of India’s largest competitive entrance examinations: the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test for admissions to undergraduate medical courses and the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test for the post of assistant professor in universities and colleges.
The agency has said that students can challenge the provisional answer key, at a cost of Rs 200 per question, till July 9.
On Sunday, the National Testing Agency issued a notification saying that challenges made by the candidates will be verified by a panel of subject experts.
“If the challenge of any candidate is found correct, the answer key will be revised and applied in the response of all the candidates accordingly,” it said. “Based on the revised Final Answer Key, the result will be prepared and declared. No individual candidate will be informed about the acceptance/non-acceptance of his/her challenge.”
Falak Ali, a Delhi-based student who took the test, was quoted by The Hindu on Monday as saying: “I had got a score of 100 in Psychology and Legal Studies in CBSE exams, but after checking the answer key in these subjects my marks are negative because many questions are wrong.”
“There are around 30 wrong answers in the subjects that I appeared for,” Ali told the newspaper. “The fee for challenging a question is Rs 200, which is too high for one question, and many might not be able to afford it.”
Ali’s mother told The Hindu that similar complaints were being reported by students across subjects.
“Ever since the answer key was released, all of my friends on WhatsApp have been discussing how there are inaccuracies across subjects,” Sneha Pandey, who took the CUET-UG exam in four subjects, told the newspaper. “We have all been demotivated since the key was released.”
The National Testing Agency has said that it will conduct a re-test for the CUET-UG between July 15 and July 19 if students’ complaints are found to be genuine.
Also read: NEET fiasco puts the spotlight on the National Testing Agency and its error-ridden record
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