What is the name of the test for undergraduate admission in Central Universities Single Window Admission for 2022 – 23 ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, CUET, the Common University Entrance Test. From the 2022-23 session, undergraduate admission to India's central universities moved to a single national entrance test conducted by the National Testing Agency, and the first CUET-UG was held in July 2022 — a month after candidates sat this UPPSC paper, which is why the question is phrased in the future tense of that moment. The change replaced the old practice of each central university running its own cut-off list or its own entrance exam, with Class XII board marks doing much of the work of selection; under CUET a single score is used across participating universities, which is what the phrase 'single window admission' in the stem refers to. The reform was announced by the University Grants Commission in March 2022 for the coming session and belongs to the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020. Note the trap built into the option list: three of the four are near-misses on the same four letters, and one of them, CUCET, is a real name — which makes precise recall, not recognition, the thing being tested.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The genuine older name, and therefore the sharpest distractor. The Central Universities Common Entrance Test ran from 2010 for a limited group of central universities; the National Testing Agency took it over in 2021, and the revamped, all-central-university test was rebranded CUET for 2022-23. CUCET is the predecessor, not the answer.  (b) Not the name of any national undergraduate admission test for central universities — an invented acronym built from plausible words.  (c) Also invented. Rearranging the same letters produces something that looks familiar, which is exactly the effect the examiner wants; there is no test of this name.

Concept: CUET is a common entrance test: one examination, one score, many universities. Its purpose is to decouple university admission from Class XII board results, which vary sharply in marking standards between boards and had pushed cut-offs at some Delhi colleges to near-100 per cent. It is administered by the National Testing Agency, the autonomous body set up to conduct large national entrance examinations, and it belongs to the National Education Policy 2020's push towards a common, standardised entry route into higher education.

State PCS 2022 Q17 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2022 Q17 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer