CET cell admits to lapses in Maths exam

Mumbai: The state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell has admitted to a major lapse in the MHT CET exam after students complained that 21 out of 50 questions for Mathematics in the exam held on April 27 were erroneous. The errors occurred as the questions were translated from Marathi to English and the answer options got jumbled in the process, CET cell commissioner Dilip Sardesai told Hindustan Times. A re-exam will be held on May 5 for all 24,744 students who opted to write the exam in English to ensure fairness.

“We found a technical error during translation,” said Sardesai. “The original paper was in Marathi and while translating it to English, the answer options for 21 questions got mixed up. This caused confusion for students and should not have happened.”

A detailed inquiry is underway to determine how the error occurred and who was responsible, Sardesai mentioned. “Strict action will be taken, and we will not engage the services of those involved in future,” he said.

The MHT CET exam is held every year, for admissions to engineering, agriculture, and pharmacy courses across Maharashtra. The exam is held for two streams, PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics) and PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Biology), and students are given the option to write exams in English, Marathi or Urdu.

Accordingly, the PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Maths) exam was held on April 27, the last day of the exam schedule, in three languages. The question paper was originally set in Marathi and later translated into English and Urdu, said sources in the CET cell. Though the Marathi and Urdu versions had no glitches, the answer keys to 21 out of 50 questions for Mathematics in the English version were erroneous.

A total of 24,744 students had opted to write the exam in English and a full re-exam covering all 150 questions (across Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics) will be conducted for these students, the CET cell confirmed. The students will receive fresh admit cards and details about exam centres via SMS and email.

As for the 2,875 and 218 students who wrote the exam in Marathi and Urdu, respectively, no decision has been made yet regarding a re-exam.

The lapse has raised questions about quality checks in paper translation, and the CET cell has promised to enforce corrective measures to avoid such lapses in future.