NTA answer key errors likely due to typos, UGC head seeks feedback
New Delhi, July 1
A section of aspirants and teachers claimed that several answers in the provisional answer key for the common university entrance test (CUET-UG) released by the National Testing Agency were incorrect and the agency was “robbing” the students who wanted to challenge it by charging them Rs 200 per question.
When asked about the allegations, University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Jagadesh Kumar said on Saturday that the National Testing Agency (NTA) had received feedback about certain answers being incorrect and it can be due to “typographical errors”. He also said the aspirants could “email to the NTA directly without paying the fees and in case of valid feedback, they will be considered”.
The NTA will release another provisional answer key within two days, he said.
On June 29, the NTA released the provisional answer key for the Common University Entrance Test or CUET (UG) 2023. Candidates can raise objections against the answer key till 11:30 pm on July 1 and are required to pay Rs 200 per question for which they have filed a challenge. However, some students and teachers claimed that charging the fee was unfair. They claimed that “answers to even basic questions were given wrong” in the answer key and, given the inaccuracies, a revised answer key should be issued before inviting objections.
“In one of the papers, I found seven answers incorrect, now if I want to challenge them I would need Rs 1,400. I don’t have this much money,” aspirant Umang Sharma said.
Many also said that the whole procedure of filing objections is very complicated. Satyapriya Pandey, whose daughter gave CUET UG, said that 40 questions were wrongly answered in the key for the Hindi test. “The answer key of Hindi is completely wrong. What to do? I am not able to understand anything. The process to challenge it is also very complicated,” Pandey said.
Ashish Singh claimed that in General Test Paper (Shift 3) conducted on May 30, the answers to 10 questions were wrong in the answer key.
Another aspirant took to Twitter to vent his resentment. “I have 5-6 questions correct in my test but it is showing wrong according to the provisional answer key(it is about only one subject), and the cost for challenging 1 question is 200. What a good way of robbing students,” Amit Kumar tweeted.
