Calcutta University holds first-ever computer-based law entrance test, ETEducation

KOLKATA: Calcutta University conducted an entrance test for law admission, following a computer-based test on Tuesday. This time, the university revised the entire process of conducting the law entrance test for students seeking admission to the five-year BA LLB course.

Students attended the test at four centres where the facility for computer-based testing is available. Over 4000 students appeared for the test.

Previously, the law department of CU conducted the test using the pen-and-paper method, but this system revealed several anomalies, especially after a first-year law student was raped at a law college in South Kolkata. The university handed over the entrance test to a private agency to conduct the examination, and a list of experts was involved in setting up questions to make the exam transparent.

The interim Vice-Chancellor, Shanta Datta De, said, “This year, the university, marking a revolutionary step, has not involved the university law department in setting the question paper and conducting the entrance test. This move was taken for the sake of maintaining the confidentiality of the exam.”

The law aspirants waited for over five months for the entrance test. On Tuesday, TOI visited the exam centre at Salt Lake. After the exam, several students stated that the exam was comparatively hard this time, and many faced trouble while answering through the CBT mode.

Souradip Biswas, a law aspirant, said, “The question paper was absolutely different from previous years’ questions. I have the 2023 question paper, which was a 50-mark paper. In today’s paper, the mathematics proportion was quite high.” Soumita Mitra, another law aspirant, said, “The exam went well, but the paper was a bit hard. We were not allowed to carry anything with us, not even a water bottle. This was the only option I have because I did not take admission yet, so I have to crack the exam to pursue a law course.”

The CBT test was for 100 marks of objective type questions, but there was no negative marking. The private agency that conducted the exam will prepare the merit list, and the result will be uploaded on the website this time. The university called a meeting with the principals of the 14 law colleges to discuss the changing format of result publication this time.

Total law colleges – 14
Total seats – Over 2000
Exam mode – Computer-based test
Appeared candidates – 92%