MH-CET: Aspirants fear repeat of last year’s mess

The concern has grown because the circulars informing students about the test that will be held in March are yet to reach students.

After the last two annual Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) conducted for MBA aspirants were marked by delays and errors, students are worried about a repeat this year. The concern has grown because the circulars informing students about the test that will be held in March are yet to reach students.

After the last two annual Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) conducted for MBA aspirants were marked by delays and errors, students are worried about a repeat this year.(Agencies/File photo)

“These circulars are usually out by January first week but last year the circulars were out only in February. Looking at the number of errors that cropped up in the test last year, we are worried something similar will happen this year too,” said Jayant Mahale, one of the candidates. He added that most MH-CET candidates have been calling the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) for the past two weeks for information, but to no avail.

Last year, the test was conducted online on two days in four slots and applicants from every slot had a list of complaints and there were demands for a re-test. “Only a few of the 57,000-odd applicants had no complaints while everybody else faced problems. Be it unprepared personnel at exam centers or technical glitches, many of us scored low because of the errors,” said another candidate on condition of anonymity.

The DTE had received complaints from candidates and many also took to social networking websites to make their complaints public. Candidates were also surprised with some of the questions asked under the logic section of the test. Questions like “Choose odd man out between (a)Apple (b)Pear (c)Orange and (d)Litchi” left students questioning the mindset of the paper setters.

DTE director S K Mahajan told HT that the circulars will be out within the next ten days. “By end of next week or the week after that circulars will be made public. Students will get ample time to register online,” he said and added that like last year, candidates will get a week to register online for the examination. “Candidates can be assured that the test will be a smooth process this year,” he added.

What happened last year

Last year, the MH-CET exams were held on March 14-15 in four different slots and the list of complaints included issues like wrong questions, technical glitches that led to many candidates losing out on 30-45 minutes of the test time, many were unable to tick mark answer boxes as well.

While the DTE canceled retest demands made by students, they put in place a percentile system, so that students from all four slots get equal marks. This process made way for more trouble because even those who had managed to appear for the full paper scored very low marks.

Eventually a PIL was filed at the Bombay high court, but to no avail as retest as well as reevaluation requests were squashed.