BENGALURU: Around 96% candidates attended the Common Entrance Test conducted by Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) across the state. On Thursday, students wrote Physics and Chemistry examinations across 745 exam centres.
H Prasanna, Director, KEA, said, “Some candidates were struggling at the last minute without hall tickets, and some of them had headed to wrong examination centres. But the staff there ensured that they were still able to write the exams without any hiccups. Anvi Sojan, a candidate, was supposed to write the exam at BGS PU College, Mahalakshmi Layout, had mistakenly gone to BGS Global College near Kengeri. Since returning to the Mahalakshmi Layout centre would have caused a delay, special arrangements were made for the candidate to write the exam at the Global College itself.”
Similarly, a candidate named Chinmayi, who was supposed to write the exam at a college in Sagar, had mistakenly gone to Science Field College in Shivamogga. Once the matter was brought to the notice of higher authorities, the college principal arranged for the candidate to be sent to Sagar in the invigilator’s vehicle, helping the candidate reach in time for the exam, Prasanna added.
At the district level, the exams were monitored through CCTV cameras under the supervision of Deputy Commissioners and ZP CEOs. Prasanna said that the OMR sheets from Hubballi-Dharwad were scanned and uploaded to the KEA website within one hour after the CET examination concluded.
“The process of uploading the OMR sheets from Bengaluru is currently in progress. The exam sheets are being uploaded immediately as soon as they arrive from the examination centres. The OMR sheets from the remaining districts will be scanned and uploaded as soon as they reach the KEA office in Bengaluru,” he added.
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Even those who applied for CET yesterday got to write the exams on Thursday. More than 100 candidates, who had not applied earlier due to various reasons such as illness, no money to pay the fee, parental opposition to studies, or the death of family members, submitted their applications a day before and appeared for the exam on Thursday.
For the first time, KEA, on humanitarian grounds, set up a special examination centre in Bengaluru city at the last minute to help such candidates who came forward with genuine issues. KEA director urged students that this should not become a regular practice where candidates arrive at the last moment expecting arrangements to be made by us.