Lower scores, reflecting more difficult papers, for science students is causing anxiety among those who are seeking admissions in arts programmes in Delhi University
With a higher number of students having largely scored higher in humanities papers than science papers in the Common University Entrance Test, science students who want to switch streams and be admitted to arts programmes in Delhi University are worried about the competition.
Analysis of the scores candidates have received to be placed in the 95 percentile for different subjects in the CUET reflect that the science papers were much harder to score in: in Mathematics, the requisite score is 103.7/200 or 51.%; in Chemistry, it is 129.2 or 64.5%; in Physics, it is 105.05 or 71.3%. On the other hand, in History, it is 165.4 or 82.7%; in Economics, it is 175.8 or 87.9%; in Psychology, it is 190.9 or 95.45%.
The lower scores, reflecting more difficult papers, for science students is causing anxiety among those among them who are seeking admissions in arts programmes in Delhi University. There is no stop on switching streams to be admitted to arts programmes in the university: the eligibility for admission to most of them will count CUET scores for one language and three other subject papers. However, candidates were required to only write the CUET in subjects they studied in class XI and XII.
“I am in the 99.9 percentile in Physics but my score is only around 149. That means that even though I have scored more than 99.9% candidates who have appeared in the same subject, candidates who appeared in arts and commerce papers who have a lower percentile have much higher marks. How can this be compared for admissions? We won’t be anywhere near the competition among the arts students. Getting 45 minutes to answer 40 questions in Maths or Physics is not easy,” said Shubh Agrawal, who wants to study B.A. (Honours) Political Science in DU.
“I am in the 99.3 percentile in Math with 148 normalized marks. A friend of mine who appeared in History is in the 94 percentile for the subject with 174 marks. Us science students are getting high percentile with lower marks but the problem is that DU is giving admission on the basis of normalized marks not percentile because of which we can’t compete with arts students. This particular format is harder for science subjects,” said Ayush Shrivastava, who also wants to be admitted to a B.A. Honours programme in DU.
DU has announced that the score on the basis of which a candidate will be placed on a merit lists for a programme group will be by simply adding up their normalized marks in all the eligibility subjects.