In the run-up to the first-ever Common University Entrance Test (CUET) – a single entrance exam for undergraduate colleges – The Quint brings you stories of how students, as well as coaching centres, are adapting to the new pattern. In the second part, read about how coaching institutes designed CUET crash courses overnight, and the aspect of unaffordability. You can read part one here.
In March this year, Class Prep – a coaching institute in Delhi’s Green Park Extension – started getting 50-60 calls from students each day with a common inquiry. They all wanted to know if the institute had a crash course for the newly announced Common Universities Entrance Test (CUET).
After all, the CUET will now be mandatory for students seeking to gain admission to any central university in the country. As of today, ClassPrep, like several other coaching institutes, has around 50 students enrolled in a special “CUET Crash Course,” priced at Rs 25,000 a month.
The course, informs Vivek from ClassPrep, covers languages, general aptitude, and domain subjects. The first-ever CUET is on 15 July. “We have students from Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra,” said Vivek.
Most of these students have taken up paying guest accommodations in Munirka nearby. The narrow lanes of Munirka, an established hub for coaching classes, are now inundated with boards advertising CUET coaching classes by numerous centres.
Since this is the first time the CUET is being held, students and their parents are unclear about what the test papers will look like. Due to this, many have sought help from coaching institutes that otherwise offer courses to prepare for other entrance examinations such as CLAT, NEET, and JEE, among others.
How Did Institutes Transition?
The test will comprise three sections. The first is the language section which has two parts - 1A with 13 languages to pick from and 1B with 20 languages. Section two has 27 domain-specific subjects for candidates to pick from and Section three is a general test.
Vivek said;
Since we were already preparing students for BBA, CLAT, and other entrances, we decided to adapt the syllabus. We then analysed the syllabus from the information available on the official website to design the CUET crash course,Vivek, employed at ClassPrep
Rajasthan’s Kota, a coaching hub that sees lakhs of students preparing for numerous competitive exams, is also adapting to this change. The institutes that earlier prepared for civil services, CLAT, MBA, and other entrances, have now added CUET to their list.
Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E) in Kota, which prepares students for management courses, is giving integrated courses to students, specifically for commerce students.
Sanjeev Rajora, Director of T.I.M.E in Kota told The Quint, “Interestingly, we received quite a few inquiries from commerce students. Many studied commerce in school without math and are now worried because they will have to attempt it as it is necessary for many courses in the Delhi University for commerce subjects.”
Unlike some coaching institutes, T.I.M.E has not started a specific crash course for CUET this year as the “announcement was rather sudden.” Rajora said,
“Students who are already preparing for management courses such as IPMAT (Integrated Program in Management Aptitude Test ) will also have the option of preparing for CUET. As of now, we have decided to run an integrated course. After CUET this year, we will take a call on whether we want to run a separate program and cover humanities and science subjects too.”
The integrated course will be priced at a tentative Rs 40,000 a month.
More Staffers, Fresh Material Ready for CUET coaching
Meanwhile, in Delhi’s Munirka, the Bala Jee Institute for Higher Education which used to prepare students for their board exams adapted almost overnight. With additional staff, new sets of students, and fresh material, it has turned into a full-fledged CUET institute. The institute has two new staffers at the reception, who answer queries of students preparing for CUET, and at least three new teachers. Meanwhile, teachers prepare students from the newly designed course material.
Aditya Rai, who teaches math at the institute, said, “Since board exams are over now, we are mostly preparing students for CUET. From next year onwards, we will prepare board students during the day and take CUET coaching classes in the evenings.”
Similarly, Career Launcher, a popular coaching institute in Delhi-NCR, undertook similar methods to evolve their preparation to suit students appearing for CUET.
Prashant Singh Chalal, who works at Career Launcher in Noida, said that the institute took around 35 days to develop the course material. Now, they have books for general knowledge, reasoning, quantitative aptitude, and English usage. They plan to create books for the domain subjects in the coming batches.
We already have teachers who are preparing students for other entrances such as CLAT and now they are also preparing students for CUET as we are only concentrating on general aptitude and language this year.Prashant Singh Chalal, who works at Career Launcher, Noida
Several institutes The Quint spoke to said that it will not be possible to prepare students for all 27 domain subjects as they comprise subjects that are opted for by fewer students, such as entrepreneurship, agriculture or Sanskrit.
'Expecting More Students Next Year,' say Institutes
Shreyansh Srivastava, from Career Launcher said that while this year, they have enrolled only 25-30 students for the crash course on CUET, the numbers will increase next year onwards.
“In fact, for the 2023 batch, we have already got 30 students,” he said. For the 2022 CUET coaching, Career Launcher is holding online classes. “We have a student from Bihar who hasn’t been able to come to Delhi so we realised online is the way forward for now.”
At ClassPrep, the expectation is that next batch will have at least 500 students for the CUET crash course. The ARS Institute in Munirka in Delhi, a relatively smaller institute, which also received a few calls in March, and has now enrolled around six students in their current batch.
Sushant Kumar Singh, who runs the institute, said, “Once the first CUET is done, we will have more clarity on what students can expect. This will help us prepare better for the coming batches.”
AaptPrep, which has branches all over the country, was one of the few coaching centers that were preparing for CUET before the University Grants Commission (UGC) made it mandatory for all central universities.
At our Navi Mumbai branch, the number of students has shot up drastically. There are around 1,000 students currently preparing for CUET. We have already got enrolments for 2023 and 2024 batches.Harsha Barkolia, the admissions counsellor at AaptPrep
Exorbitant Fees, Affordability an Issue
Foremost among the criticisms of CUET was that all students would not have the same exposure and that all schools might not be able to help students with their preparation.
Further, students who do not have access to mobile phones or laptops at home struggled to fill out forms. Many students told The Quint they went to cyber cafes, which charged between Rs 200-Rs 500 to help the students with the forms.
Gunjan Mandal, a 17-year-old student from Delhi’s Tughlakabad said that coaching classes are out of reach for her.
My mother is employed as a domestic help, and my father works in a camera company. We can’t afford these prep classes, and this worries me.Gunjan Mandal, student
The starting range for most of these courses is Rs 20,000 per month for the crash course and is expected to go up to Rs 70,000-Rs 80,000 for a year from the coming academic session.
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