The press release available on the official website of NTA states one more important detail. The Test Practice Centres (TPCs) that were said to be made available for aspirants, especially the rural candidates, will now remain open every Saturday and Sunday starting from September 01, 2018. Aspirants can select and visit their nearby TPC and practice free of charge.
As per the release, the TPCs will have downloaded Computer-Based Test (CBT) which will be similar to the actual test. Thus, candidates who are not familiar with the CBT model of examination can become familiar with it. The TPCs will help candidates know the working of CBT exams like logging into the system, going through the instructions, using the mouse and numeric virtual keyboard, scrolling between the questions, navigating between questions, reviewing and editing their answers and submitting the same.
In short, TPCs will train the candidates on how to use the system on the actual exam day. Aspirants will thus be able to be thorough with the interface and will have no problem on the exam day.
2,697 schools/engineering colleges have are being made available that will act like the TPCs in the coming days. An app is also being developed which will enable the students to select their nearby TPC.
On August 21, 2018, NTA has released the final schedule for JEE Main 2019, NEET 2019, UGC NET 2019, CMAT 2019 and GPAT 2019 exam. The final schedule has few major changes and some new dates. The tentative schedule was announced earlier in July. Now, with the release of the final schedule, candidates can now prepare for the new conducting body to conduct major national level examinations.
The first exam that NTA will conduct is UGC NET 2019 from December 09 to 23, 2018. The registrations for which start on September 01, 2018. The JEE Main 2019 registrations will also start on September 01, 2018. For both the exams, the last dates to apply is September 20, 2018.
The NEET UG 2019 exam which was earlier announced to be held twice a year and in online mode, will now be held once a year and in pen and paper mode only.