College cut offs for undergraduate courses, never too low in normal pre-COVID times, are set to skyrocket in 2021.
The talk of Class XII board exams across CBSE, ISC and other state boards being a 'hybrid model', could trigger new record percentages.
"The cut offs could be higher at least by 1-1.5 percent compared to 2020. After shortlisting candidates, there could also be a virtual interview process for further screening," said the admissions director at a university in Mumbai.
Admission officials across large central universities told Moneycontrol that considering that the education boards are only looking to hold Class XII exams for some subjects, the entry criteria will be tougher.
According to an admissions head of a Kolkata University, "We will need to do a thorough screening of the prospective students. There will be a significantly higher number of students applying for the same courses since study-abroad plans are also being dropped due to COVID-19, cut offs will be higher."
In 2020, cut offs across colleges, especially those under Delhi University, had crossed 97 percent for most subjects in the first list.
In fact, Lady Shri Ram College had a whopping 100 percent cut off for honours in political science, economics, and psychology in 2020.
As per education ministry sources, the plan is to only hold examinations for subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, English and Hindi among others, which are crucial for giving competitive exams like NEET (medical entrance) and JEE (engineering entrance).
For the rest of the subjects, it is intended that students will be marked based on their performance in their previous terms and internal assessments. Oral examinations could also be conducted over the phone.
Considering the disrupted board exam schedule, the academic year for 2021 may only commence by October. This means that the cut off lists will start getting disseminated from August onwards.
CBSE has cancelled Class X board exams, but has not taken a final decision on the Class XII boards, which was set to begin from May 4.
Every year, close to 1.2 million students appear for CBSE Class XII examinations across the country. As per the original schedule, the board exams were to be held between May 4 and June 14. The results were to be declared by July 15.
However, by the second week of April 2021, the COVID-19 situation worsened, and the education ministry decided to cancel the CBSE Class X board exams. On April 14, the ministry announced that it has postponed the CBSE Class XII board papers as well.
Competition to get intense
Typically, students scoring between 65-70 percent apply for sports quota to get admission to their college of choice. In 2021, however, there will not be any opportunity to apply under this scheme since there have been no major sporting events held in the past one year.
In 2020, colleges like Miranda House had a 99 percent cut off for a BA English course and BA Political Science course in their first list.
For students, the biggest worry is that these numbers may touch 100 percent this year, making the competition unbearably difficult.
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