NTA to Conduct UGC NET in December 2018 – HRD Ministry Released the Schedule for JEE Main 2019, NEET 2019 and Others

National Testing Agency is all set to conduct its first exam, UGC NET 2018, in the month of December. The agency will be relieving the Central Board of Secondary Education from its responsibilities of conducting competitive exams.

09 July 2018: The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has released the tentative schedule of exams to be conducted by the newly formed National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday in a Press Conference. As per the schedule, the authority will conduct its first exam, UGC NET 2018, in the month of December. The UGC NET (University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test) exam was until now conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

About NTA

NTA will be relieving CBSE from its function of conducting various competitive exams such as UGC NET, NEET, JEE Main, CMAT, and GPAT. The board has been demanding to relieve it from the competitive examination duties from the year 2016. The board already has the responsibility of conducting annual all India secondary and higher secondary examination duties. It controls 19,316 affiliated schools in Indian and schools in foreign countries. The board also conducts Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) but there was no mention about the exam in the HRD announcement.

NTA Examinations Schedule

Here are the tentative exam schedules for various examinations

UGC NET

CBSE has been conducting the UGC NET exam on behalf of the University Grants Commission for the recruitment of teachers at University and college level. The UGC NET exam 2018 conducted on 08 July 2018 would probably be the last NET exam conducted by CBSE. NTA would be conducting UGC NET exam in December. HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar, has said that the examination would be held online from December onwards. The detailed notification is yet to be released. However, the tentative schedule is here:

JEE Main

JEE Main examination has been conducted by the board on behalf of the Human Resource Development Ministry. It is an entrance exam for admission to engineering courses and is also an eligibility test for JEE Advanced. It was conducted once a year till now. NTA will conduct the JEE Main exam twice a year – in the month of January and April. Here are the tentative dates:

NEET

NEET is a national level medical entrance exam conducted for admission to medical and dental courses offered by government and private colleges in the country. NEET exam would also be conducted twice a year under NTA in the month of February and May. This would be a major opportunity for medical aspirants as NEET has replaced all other medical examination (except AIIMS MBBS and JIPMER MBBS). The notices are expected on the following date:

CMAT

The Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) is a conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for admission to management courses. NTA is set to take up the responsibility of conducting all national level competitive exams in the long run. AICTE will also be covered after CBSE. For now, CMAT and GPAT conducted by AICTE have been taken under the purview of NTA. Here is the tentative schedule:

GPAT

Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) is another test conducted by AICTE for Pharmacy graduates to get admission into Master’s program (M.Pharm). Here is the schedule of the exam to be conducted by NTA:

Number of Attempts and Exam Standards

For NEET, candidates can appear in both the NEET exams and the better of two scores would be considered for admission as told by the HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.

The minister further said on the standard of the exams, “There will be no issues of leakage and it would be more student-friendly, open, scientific and a leak-proof system.” He further added, "The new system will be student-friendly, fair, transparent and flexible."

"The item writers would be trained to ensure that the quality of questions is as per the test design. The experts, statisticians and item writers/subject matter experts are already identified for being inducted into NTA,"

The ministers said that the computer-based exams would be conducted over a span of four-five days and students would be given option to choose the exam dates. The syllabus, pattern, language, fee, eligibility, etc. for the examination would remain same. The minister also said that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) would continue to conduct the Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced). This exam is conducted for admission to engineering programs offered by IITs. Only those candidates who qualify JEE Main can appear for the JEE Advanced exam.