Students worry over out-of-syllabus questions on Day One of KCET

The students, who appeared for Day One of the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) on Thursday, were shocked to see some out-of-syllabus questions.

The test was held at 737 centres across the state. Eighty per cent of the total 3,49,673 registered candidates attended the examination, a communication from the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) said. 

According to the students, 11 questions in the Biology paper and nine in the Mathematics paper were not from the textbooks prescribed. These questions were from the deleted chapters of the NCERT Biology textbook and in the Mathematics paper, nine questions were not from the textbooks they studied. 

They said the Biology paper was moderate, but are worried about the out-of-syllabus questions. They are hoping to get grace marks. “As it was not our mistake, hopefully, the authorities will give us grace marks,” a student said. 

“First of all, the Mathematics paper was tough and above that, there were some out-of-syllabus questions,” another student said. 

Agreeing with the students, the subject teachers said, “In the current year, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has rationalised the Biology and Chemistry subjects for the NEET examination and nine chapters from Chemistry and six chapters from Biology were deleted. Even we, at the colleges, have followed the NTA instructions.” 

As explained by the teachers, the questions asked from the deleted chapters were about Reproduction in Organisms, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production, Organisms and Population, Echo system, Environmental Issues and Plant Kingdom, and Structural Organization in Animals from the first PUC textbooks. 

S Ramya, executive director of KEA, said, “The students have the option to submit their objections after the key answers are published. We will take the expert committee opinion and decide.” 

‘Govt’s failure’

Meanwhile, the opposition BJP leaders saw this as the government’s failure.

Former BJP MLC Arun Shahapur asked, “The Pre-university Education Department and the KEA are government departments. This clearly shows a lack of coordination and failure of the government. When a few chapters were deleted, the PUE department communicated the same to colleges. However, the KEA says it has set the question paper as per its syllabus. What are they trying to prove?”