English (CATE) was conducted on Saturday by the varsity for admission
to its coveted English (Hons.) programmes.
The test had several surprises in store for the students who appeared
for it at 2 PM on Saturday, consisting of questions that students said
were much difficult than the previous year.
Kanika Bhalla, a student who appeared for the test at Kamala Nehru
College said that the objective section of the paper was very
difficult. "My sister had appeared for the test last year and the
questions had been relatively easy then," she said.
The number of applicants who applied for the test also increased to
11,000 form the 10,000 that had appeared last year. There were 25
centres where the test was conducted and they all had attendance
between 95% to 98%.
Sumanyu Satpathy, head of the English department at Delhi University
(DU) said that the level of questions in the test had been raised
consciously by the department as the number of students who were to
appear for the test had increased significantly.
"We have not received any complaints regarding the test as of yet. The
students who appeared for the test don't seem to be very disturbed,"
he said.
However, several students who appeared for the test had a different
say. Abhay Singh Rathore, a student who appeared for the test at
Kirori Mal College said that the test was not for students who wanted
to keep English as their second option or back-up. "A students had to
really know literature to do well in the test," he said.
Apart from the objective section, another difficulty that students
faced was in the essay section. Nihita Khanna, an aspirant who
appeared for the test at Lady Sri Ram College said that the essay
topic required very good command over the language and also an ability
to ideate well. "It required students to have awareness and some
literature background," she said.
The topic of the essay in the test was "Globalization and its impact
on culture".
Satpathy agreed with the students and said that this year's paper was
more literature-oriented compared to the last year's test that had
been more commonsensical. However, he clarified that the paper
contained questions for all students.
The exam for English was scheduled to be conducted in the afternoon as
the entrance tests for business-related courses such as BBE, BBS and
BFIA took place in the morning. Although the CATE was conducted
smoothly at all centres, there were reports of a couple of students
fainting due to the intense summer heat.
This year, more than 15000 students had applied to appear for CATE. 21
Colleges under DU participated in the test. The number of colleges
that had participated last year was 17. the newest entrants to the
test include Janki Devi Memorial College, Kirori Mal College, Rajdhani
College and Vivekananda College.
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