DU Issues Guidelines On Inclusion Of State Board Subjects In Cut-Off Calculation

DU has issued guidelines on inclusion of subjects from other state boards equivalent to ones taught under the Central Board of Secondary Education in the calculation of cut-off marks.

With Delhi University colleges witnessing a large number of admissions of students from the Kerala state board, the university has issued guidelines on inclusion of subjects from other state boards equivalent to ones taught under the Central Board of Secondary Education in the calculation of cut-off marks.

There is an equivalence committee which decides which subjects from state boards would be similar to CBSE subjects and their inclusion while calculating the cut-off score -- the average of best-of-four marks. "If they (committee) say that a subject is not equivalent, it cannot be included in Best of Four," said Rajeev Gupta, Chairman, Admissions at the university. A meeting was held on Tuesday with colleges and a list was shared with them.

Citing an example, Gupta said that CBSE has started Applied Mathematics as a subject to help students who are not well-versed with Mathematics, which means it is easier than Mathematics. "CBSE has also written that students of Applied Mathematics will not be eligible for Physics (Honours), Chemistry (Honours) and Mathematics (Honours). The Equivalence Committee considered it and found that the Applied Mathematics cannot be considered for Economics (Honours) since the course requires a difficult level of Mathematics but it can be considered for B.Com(Honours)," he said.

The committee considers factors like theory and practical component, syllabus, etc. while deciding on the equivalence, Gupta said.For instance, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has a subject titled Mathematics and Statistics, which according to the guidelines will be considered equivalent to CBSE Mathematics, while Nagaland Board of School Education's Fundamentals of Business Mathematics will also be considered as the equivalent of Mathematics in CBSE.