A panel had been setup to explore the possibilities of scrapping MHT-CET. The panel has provided an update through the media. The good news is that MHT-CET 2009 and MHT-CET 2010 will be conducted.
I could point out few interesting miscalculations of the panel. Shri Rajesh Tope, Minister of State for Higher and Technical Education has made a convenient mis-statement while speaking to the media. He confidently said “It will be cancelled from 2010-11, so that students who are currently in class X will know about it.” The fact is that Shri Tope can at most propose to scrap MHT-CET–the actual decision to whether scrap or not lies with the Supreme Court as MHT-CET is being conducted as per a Supreme Court ruling. Such misleading statement made by responsible personalities are the actual birthplace of rumours and uncertainity among students.
Dr. W.B. Tayde -Director of DMER, complains that students from urban areas have much brighter opportunities than those from rural areas. I would like to bring to your notice that “Rest Of Maharashtra(ROM)” has a gross total of 1210 seats across 10 medical colleges for MBBS through MHT-CET, Vidharbha has 500 MBBS seats across 4 medical colleges and Marathwada has only 350 across 4 medical colleges (Source: MHT-CET 2008 Preference Book by DMER). The actual no. of seats may reduce by about 40-60 after discounting reserved seats for GOI, defense candidates, etc. The rule is that for any region(ROM/Vidh/Marath), only 30% of the seats can be allotted to those outside that region. The rest 70% seats must be offered to candidates from the same region in which the medical college is located. As a result, students from ROM area-which includes Mumbai urban and suburbans have much brighter chances of being admitted to a medical college. You can see for how conveniently the blame has been passed instead of attributing it to lesser no. of seats in rural areas. Frankly, its a myth that there are no good “teachers” in rural areas. There may be lack of “coaching classes”, but good teachers are definitely present. Also, the teachers who teach CET are almost always the ones who teach HSC. If he complains that teachers are not available there, then who teaches HSC syllabus in those places? Dr. Tayde should have boldly stated, or perhaps he subtly implicates that the teachers are not up to the mark to teach CET. Another reason he points out-”Also, the ICSE/CBSE boards’ curricula is much better than our state board, and this helps them to pass the exams easily“. Actually, this is plain misconception. Dr. Tayde is refusing to recognize and credit the unique pockets of MHT-CET. All said, this is the price students of Maharashtra are paying because our syllabus has remained mediocre. Students of Maharashtra have very little chance beyond MHT-CET and few other Maharashtra-oriented CETs because our syllabus is too low-level to fetch anything worthwhile outside the home ground.
Another member on the board of studies of MUHS, who has not been named in the newspaper report, has come up with a new dimension saying that “CET is based on objective questions and a medical student needs to be subjective.” I wish to inform this ignoramus anonymous that post-graduate medical entrance is an totally objective examination. Where is your “subjective” angle in this case? He also adds that “Objective questions can be solved through guesswork too.” Can’t guesswork be done in subjective situations? Further, he dares to add that “The CET is not helping us get quality students, so we have proposed scrapping the exams.” I seriously want to know what definition of quality Mr. Anonymous follows. The passing rate as well as highest-marks for MBBS examinations has steadily been increasing over time. In fact, I have heard many Professors in Medical Colleges saying sarcastically “Its is easy to pass MBBS under MUHS. During our time, it wasn’t so easy.” Myself being a medical student, I have the opportunity to compare current question papers with those 20-35 yr old question papers. I can confidently say that MUHS question papers are remarkably easy compared to the 3-decade older ones.
The bottom-line is that fate of MHT-CET and of many capable students is unfortunately in the hands of people who are biased, full of misconceptions, and hasty to make decisions without diligent thinking. It a curse to study under a Board which chooses to remain medicore, but I guess we have very little choice in this matter. Other thing that bothers me is that all the above analysed opinions of the Study Panel are the ones which have been conveyed to the media. I am more afraid of those possibly senseless allegations that may have been made in the report that shall be submitted, but are not conveyed to the media.
I think it’s high time Govt stops deciding future of millions of candidates without proper research and feedback
Sir, I am a student of III MBBS in Seth G.S. Medical College, KEM Hospital, Mumbai and I wish to tell you that the news of the PG-CET being scrapped has resulted in a lot of my fellow students especially my batchmates making a knee-jerk decision of turning to the USMLE for seeking residency in the United States of America rather than risk taking Indian exams, even at the All India level since they fear the tough competition and the limited number of seats.
All of us believe that the mediocre syllabus that we are saddled with in HSC does not prepare us for exams conducted at the All India level which are designed with the standards of the CBSE Board in mind.
We had hoped that atleast after studying MBBS for five and a half years we would be adequately prepared to compete at a national level but unfortunately a lot of us believe that the easy examination pattern of the MUHS does not encourage rigorous thinking or patient-oriented approach to clinical problems, where reaching a diagnosis and managing even minor cases is considered secondary to the mere manner of presentation and the usage of ‘examiner-friendly’ words.
And most definitely, it is time the Government learned that it is essential to make decisions like these after serious contemplation and study, and not based on the whims and random thoughts of their policy-makers.
The reasons given behind for scrapping MHCET is seems to be OK.
We have seen in recent past and even today that students are concentrating more on CET than their day to day work and for them it is MOST PRIORITY to study CET Syllabus than regular studies.
Needless to say ,that the Private Tutution classes rose for this purpose are plenty and are charging heavy fees by advertising Crash Course etc. etc…
As such, a very purpose behind CET is being differed and a normal student who do less efforts in regular HSC, concentrating more on CET, gets admission keeping genuine student.
In my opinion, the base of 11th and 12 th Std. for higher educations should be made in such a way that there is no need of such type of entrance examination. My suggestion is that when CET is being abolished, the students are to be made more responsible for their studies since Std. 11th. Both 11th and 12th marks should be counted for preparation of merits in higher education.
Hello Mr. K B Manwatkar,
As you would know, for professional courses, comprehension of information i.e, application and manipulation is needed rather than just being a storehouse of information.
In the past 4 years of teaching, I have observed that students of Maharashtra Board can very well memorize the long essay answers, formulae, theorems, etc. but they cannot apply the information. In short, they do not have the necessary logical, analytical and reasoning capacities.
The purpose of CET is very much being realized. CET is helping colleges get the best creative brains rathers than those brains that simply mug-up the information and vomit it in the exams. The no of really challenging questions asked in HSC board exams are very less.
If the HSC board exam is really helpful, then why do HSC toppers not perform well at CET? Its exactly the same syllabus. HSC board exam tests memory retention and recollection skills, rather the core thinking ability.
Dear Mr. Manwatkar, I would like to bring one thing to your notice that, HSC syllabus do no make students rational and analytical, It is mere guide by expert coaching professionals who helped them to acquire this. As well please have a look on the quality of engineers that our state is producing and compare it with other states. One more point is that hsc syllabus is just too easy to pass.
Dear Dr Shenoy
I have gone thru series of yr articles on Mh-CET wrt students seeking admissions in Medicine.
The fact remains that most of the deserving students incld my daughter have scoured much lesser marks than expectations. This has not only resulted in the hopeless situation but no alternative to repeat MH-CET next year.
DMER has also published a note on their site that ‘merit list’ is final without giving any feedback/proof to the students who paid Rs 500 for reevaluations.
I would appreciate a giudance from your end in such cases
i am currently in 12th and aspiring to proceed MBBS but such news breaks our efforts completely and no prior notice is just not done. shenoy sir please tell us is medical cet scrapped for 2012?