While the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has released the revised rank list for the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2022 today, October 1, as per the orders of the state High Court, the repeaters of the exam and freshers are all not happy with the same.
Suhas Papanashi, a KCET repeater said, “My rank was 1.18 lakh before but now it is 30k. It would have been below 20k had my 18 marks not been deducted.” The new ranking list was released as per KEA's proposal — 6 marks in Physics, 5 marks in Chemistry and 7 marks in Mathematics were cut from the total 100 marks for the repeaters. “Now the chances of me getting a branch/college I would join is like 0.5 per cent. Most probably I will be joining through COMEDK or PESSAT exams, and be paying two to three lakhs per year,” the student expressed his concern.
The KCET exam was held on June 16, 17 and 18 this year. However, following the announcement of the results, repeaters of the exam extensively protested against the evaluation criteria, as they discovered that their PU II marks were not included in the final KCET merit score. Ramya S, another KCET dropper aired similar worries. “I will be able to get a good college with this rank but I would have gotten a better college if they had considered the complete 50 per cent,” she said.
To recall, a Single-judge Bench had earlier ordered the KEA to re-do the entire ranking process and provide 50 per cent weightage to PU II scores of all candidates, including the repeaters. However, the KEA challenged this verdict before a Divisional Bench of the High Court and said that it would formulate a process that would protect the interests of both the roughly 22,000 repeaters and the 1.35 lakh freshers of the KCET 2022 exam.
Freshers’ concerns
Some freshers seemed satisfied with their rank after the revised list was announced. “My rank hasn’t changed much compared to the previous list. There is also a 10 per cent increase in IT seats so I am happy with it,” said Sanjana Boggaram, a fresher. However, she did point out that the new decision might affect those students drastically who got higher ranks — above 1,000.
Additionally, some freshers took to Twitter to express their disappointment with the huge difference they noticed between previous ranks to the ones released today. “It's purely KEA’s mistake and we have to suffer. Freshers should move to the Supreme Court. They have spoiled the lives of 2 lakh people for the sake of 22,000 repeaters who didn't write exams, got full free marks and one-year full time to study only KCET. Great injustice,” said Keshava Murthy N on Twitter.
Freshers also hoped that the counselling process for the exam must begin soon considering the consequent delays in the academic year.
