Bengaluru: From next year, the Common Entrance Test (CET) application process is likely to be integrated with the II PU examination application process, preventing students from submitting multiple CET applications in the same year.
As per discussions between the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB), which conducts the II PU exam, and the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which oversees CET, a single application can be developed for science students in the state board.
The move is not just to help students avoid multiple applications but also to prevent them from making errors during filing.
“When the application form for the II PU exam is filled, the college takes responsibility. But during CET, no one helps students. They either end up filling it with mistakes or go to a cyber centre where they have to pay people to assist them in completing it. With a single application, this is ruled out,” said H Prasanna, executive director of KEA.
“This year, around 11,000 students made mistakes in filling the CET form. We had to create over 8,000 spot ranks because these students could not be given ranks in the initial list as their PU marks were not fetched. This was due to mistakes they made in filing the application, including their PU register number. The students ended up approaching us for a spot rank. A single application form will help us release results faster too,” he said.
Around 85% of CET applications are from PU students; the remaining are from other boards like the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination. Students from other boards and repeaters will have to make a separate application for CET.
“The plan is that when a PU student applies for CET, all he needs to do is to log in to the KEA website and make the payment,” he added. “These are all government departments. Data transfer won’t be an issue,” he said.
The amount of details that both exams entail are almost the same. CET requires some more information like Kannada medium, rural or urban status, reservations, linguistic or religious minority, among others. These can also be fetched from the PU application. Meanwhile, the departments are also discussing the scope of fetching these details during I PU admissions.
II PU applications are made in August, while CET applications are done in November.
“We are discussing how we can incorporate the rest of the details too and make a single application possible,” said Prakash GT Nittali, chairman of KSEAB.
