Students, parents take sigh of relief with moderate, glitch-free CUET

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The first shift of the nationwide CUET went smoothly without any major accidents, as students who came out after the exam called the paper “moderate” and the process glitch-free.

While students wrote their 3-hour-long paper, anxious parents waited outside the exam halls on a day when the city and neighbouring areas braved a heat wave with temperature hovering in the upper 40s.

Shift 1 of CUET-UG was held at 447 centres across 271 cities with 87,879 students.

At a centre in Noida sector 62, many students students came out beaming with satisfaction.

“It was not difficult. All arrangements were up to the mark. I heard students faced many problems last time, so naturally I was nervous. But today the exam at this centre was conducted smoothly,” said Jyoti Sharma from Noida.

“English was easy and General Test was moderately difficult. It went fine,” said the DU aspirant.

Jyoti’s mother smiled when she saw her daughter coming out of the centre.

“Last time we all saw there were a lot of issues. We did not want our daughter to face such a problem. I was nervous about how the exam would go and it was hot too. I was worried about any glitches,” said Sushmita.

Last year, the debut session of CUET was marred by glitches and several technical problems.

Divyanshi, another aspirant, appeared confident and said her tests went “perfect.”

“I managed to attempt all the questions. I had General Test and English. These exams help in the maintenance of fairness. I am happy,” she added.

All the same, a section of students decried the authorities for not accepting Pan Card as a valid identity card and insisting only on Aadhaar.

“Isn’t my pan card a valid I’d proof for the CUET exam? Then why they don’t let me enter the exam hall,” one Nitish Kumar tweeted.

The second edition of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) began on Sunday with over 14 lakh candidates set to appear for for undergraduate admissions in varsities across the country.

Unlike last year, the exam is being conducted in three shifts this time.

Earlier, the exam was scheduled to be held from May 21 to May 31 but the National Testing Agency (NTA) decided to extend the schedule by at least four days to accommodate the higher number of candidates.