NTA Replaces CBSE/AICTE; Students Confused over Admission Process

Since yesterday, everybody knows that NTA is finally in the picture and will conduct NEET and JEE Main twice a year. The National Testing Agency was approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2017 for conducting entrance examinations for higher educational Institutions.

It will conduct 05 major examinations which were earlier held by CBSE and AICTE. These exams are JEE Main in Engineering. In Medical, NTA will conduct NEET (UG), in Management, it is CMAT, in Pharmacy it is GPAT and College/ University Teaching & Fellowship, it will conduct UGC NET.

The schedule of the entrance test and changes which will be done by NTA have been specified by every other website. However, the major queries of the students have not been addressed yet. There is a lot of confusion about the eligibility criteria, the counseling process, syllabus, etc.

Read | Click Here to check the complete schedule for entrance tests being held by NTA.

Mostly students have been wondering if they should appear for both the papers held in January and April. It is a personal choice of the candidate, however, it is recommended that now that you are given the opportunity to appear for the national level entrance tests twice, you should grab it. In the end, for admission, the best of the two scores of the candidate will be used, so it is better to increase your chances of qualifying for counseling by appearing in both the papers.

Next is the eligibility criteria for the entrance tests. Will there be any change in the eligibility criteria of these national level entrance test? It is expected that the eligibility criteria for JEE Main 2019, NEET 2019, CMAT 2019, GPAT 2019 and UGC NET Dec 2018 shall be the same as last year.

Read | Click Here to read the full story on Number of Attempts in JEE Main 2019.

The age limit criteria is the confusing part of the entrance tests. The NTA has not yet specified any age limit criteria for these entrance tests.

Another big question is the admission process. Since NTA will conduct JEE Main 2019 and NEET 2019 twice a year, will the admission process will also be held twice? No, the admission process for these two entrance tests will be held only once. First, the candidates will appear for the exam in January 2019, a result for that will be announced, then the candidates will appear for the entrance exam in April 2019, then a result will be announced. Now, finally for the counseling, the higher score amongst the two will be chosen and on the basis of that, a merit list will be prepared.

One of the major change to be done by NTA is that it will conduct a computer-based test for all the entrance tests. Also, the exam for JEE Main and NEET 2019 will be held in multiple shifts. In the first press release of NTA, it has been stated that “For NTA JEE Main 2019, 8 different sittings, and the candidate can choose any one”.

Now, the question is for JEE exam 8 sitting is mentioned. So that means 8 different question papers? It actually means that the candidate can choose any one slot, i.e. date and time as per their convenience and appear for the test as per it. The language of the question paper is the same as last year.

For NEET 2019, the students are mostly worried about the distribution of the seats. If there are two exams in a year will the seats for colleges be halved for each exam? Or will they extend seats? This is a debatable question as NTA has not given any clarification on this. However, one thing is for sure that whether the candidates appear in one paper or both the papers, they will get equal opportunity in the counseling. The students who will appear for the entrance test on Jan/Feb, and then on Apr/ May take admission together in June-July counseling.

These were some of the questions which students have asked on NTA and how will it conduct the exam. If you do not find your query here, tell us your question in the comment section below or use #askaglasem in Twitter.