Govt drops KCET re-exam plan; not to evaluate out-of-syllabus questions

The state government has decided to evaluate the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) marks, by not considering the out-of-syllabus questions. 

Following objections from students and considering the burden and stress to prepare again for the exams, it has dropped the idea of going for re-examination, and has decided to remove out-of-syllabus questions from the assessment.

A communication released to the media on late on Sunday night, said, “Demands for providing grace marks/removing the questions for assessment, or reconducting the exam afresh, have also been made.”

The decision further reads, “Keeping in view the Expert Committee report and opinion of many stakeholders and the paramount interest of protecting the legitimate interests of the students in mind, the KEA is directed to remove questions that are out of 2023-24 syllabus from the assessments, and assess only the remaining questions.”

Answer key

As mentioned by the department, number of questions that will be removed from the assessment are: Physics 9, Chemistry 15, Mathematics 15 and Biology 11. “The KEA will also publish the answer key along with the list of out-of-syllabus questions on their website. The students’ marks in the CET will assessed on the remaining questions only. This will adequately protect the interest of the students and provide a level-playing field. Two questions with incorrect solutions will also be awarded grace marks,” reads the release. 

As explained by the government, it has decided not to reconduct the exams, considering other exams that are being conducted. “The government has decided that there will be no re-examination of KCET 2024. There are a number if exams that are being conducted in May and June, including COMEDK, JEE Main, NEET, NEST, CUET and second third attempt of PUC 2. The government is of the view that conducting re-exam at this stage will cause undue hardship and burden to students,” it said.

It further stated  “Since there are a number of other exams that students have to write, reconducting KCET exams would cause unnecessary panic and harassment. Further, it would be causing undue hardship for the students for no fault of theirs. The academic calendar for professional courses will also get delayed if a re-exam is proposed.” 

However, to avoid such instances in future, the KEA has been directed to prepare a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for setting question papers for CET. 

Though the number out-of-syllabus questions, according to students and teachers were more, the Expert Committee constituted for the subjects, opined that some questions are in the syllabus and chapter of first-year PUC of 2022-23, which the students learnt in the previous year and they need not be deleted from the question papers.