CET for engineering, pharmacy to be held a month early

Source:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/cet-for-engineering-pharmacy-to-be-held-a-month-early/articleshow/72391606.cms.

PUNE: The state Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has advanced the online entrance exam for pharmacy and engineering courses by almost a month to April 13 and 20, respectively.

The move brings a huge relief to students as the entrance test, which was usually conducted before mid-May left them with hardly any time to prepare for other national-level exams. “With the test being held early, its results would also be declared earlier than before. This will help in streamlining admissions to engineering courses,” Sejal Apte, who is seeking admission to engineering course, said.

The joint entrance examination (JEE)-Mains conducted for admissions to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is usually scheduled in April first week and those who qualify JEE- Mains are eligible to appear for the Advanced exam held a month later in May. This, however, used to complicate the study pattern for students earlier as the JEE - Advanced exam used to overlap with state CET.

The CET Cell has also decided to make two separate groups for physics, chemistry and maths (PCM) for engineering admissions and physics, chemistry and biology (PCB) for pharmacy admissions. Till last year, all students would appear for physics and chemistry papers and later either biology or maths or both, depending on their choices. Now, with two separate exams for segregated groups on two different days, the students who are willing to give both exams will have enough time to plan their studies.

Director of IITians Prashikshan Kendra’s Durgesh Mangeshkar, said, “Segregating PCB and PCM was an important change made by the Directorate of Technical Education as last year this had created chaos and many students had also appealed in court as the percentile calculation was flawed in case of students who appeared for all the four subjects. With the segregation of the groups, all students will have a level playing field and none would be at loss.”