BENGALURU: CBSE students showed a strong performance while the overall eligibility for various professional courses registered a noticeable dip in the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET)-2025 results announced by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Saturday.
Of the total 3,11,991 candidates who appeared this year, more than 2.75 lakh passed, bringing the total pass percentage to 88.36.
Among the top 10 rank holders in the engineering stream, seven were from CBSE schools. Bhavesh Jayanthi from Bengaluru secured the first rank in engineering and also emerged as the second topper in Pharma-D. The second and third ranks were bagged by Satwik B Biradar and Dhinesh Gowthami Shankar Arunachalam, respectively, both from Bengaluru schools.
Despite the high-ranking performances, this year saw a decline in the number of students eligible for admissions across most courses. For engineering courses, 2,62,195 students qualified this year, compared to 2.75 lakh last year. A similar dip was observed in other streams -- in Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences (BNYS), 1,98,679 became eligible this year against 2.19 lakh in 2024 while in BSc (Hons) Agriculture, 2,14,588 were eligible in 2025 compared to 2.15 lakh in 2024.
Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar, who released the results, attributed the overall drop in eligibility to the lower pass percentage among 2nd PUC science students this year. “This naturally reflects in the number of students qualifying for KCET-based admissions,” he added.
Sudhakar also clarified that grace marks were awarded in limited instances. “One grace mark has been awarded in Physics, while in Biology, two answers were accepted for one question. Similarly, in Chemistry, two different answers were considered correct for two separate questions,” he said while addressing the media.
KEA officials said the counselling will begin soon and details will be uploaded on KEA website.
Meanwhile, Suchivrat Kulkarni from Bidar, who was barred from writing the CET Mathematics exam after being asked to remove his janivara (sacred thread), was awarded a CET rank of 2.06 lakh in the engineering stream based on his 2nd PUC average and his Physics score — the only CET paper he appeared for,” Sudhakar said.
The minister mentioned that the student was also given a second chance to appear for the exam, but his mother requested KEA to consider his 2nd PUC average and Physics score as Kulkarni was not in the state to appear for the exam.