25,000 repeaters in CET-2022 unprecedented, says Karnataka Examinations Authority

BENGALURU: Amid severe criticism and protests against the Karnataka Examinations Authority choosing to use only the marks scored in Common Entrance Test (CET) 2022 in the case of students of 2020-21 batch, KEA said around 25,000 students had chosen to repeat the entrance exam for the second consecutive time this year.
Confirming that the number was unprecedented in its recent history, KEA claimed the students were hoping to improve their ranks using their last year’s PU results, which were extremely high due to the lack of board exams. The CET results created confusion on Saturday as students of the 2021 batch who were repeating the entrance test realised that their PU marks were not taken into account for the CET ranks. For students of the 2022 batch, both the PU marks and CET were given equal weightage. With this, the ranks of the repeater students dipped drastically even though they secured better scores in CET.
“This is the first time in recent history that we have so many repeaters for CET. Earlier, the numbers would be around 1000-1500. Their main target would be the agriculture or veterinary courses, after failing to get an MBBS seat. Repeaters for engineering courses would be hardly 10%,” said S Ramya, executive director, KEA. “This year, it is around 25,000. We realised this only when we were analysing the results. A large majority of them, we feel, have been misguided. They were under the impression that they could make use of their high PU marks from last year. We fear they also have not realised that if they were allotted a seat last year, they cannot take part in the counselling process. Our assumption is that a large number of these students are those who have taken a seat last year, and are now trying to better their chances this year, using their high PU marks. They should have at least enquired with the authority how the rules work,” she added.
Many students refuted the charges that they had already taken seats last year. “My brother’s rank was 38,000 last year. He could not have got into any of the top engineering colleges. So when I saw him scoring so well without much coaching, I thought a year of repeating will help him better the score. He did eight months of intense coaching by paying Rs 1 lakh. But, his rank has dropped to 1,36,000, despite him getting more marks in CET,” said a guardian.
Students allege that there was no intimation at any point that the rules would be separate for the last batch and this batch. “Had we known this, we would not have attempted again,” they said.
“According to the rules, we consider marks only when there is a qualifying exam. In the case of CBSE repeaters whose marks have been considered, we are crosschecking the same,” the director said.