Toppers’ Tips: How CUET UG gave me chance to secure admission at a top college without scoring 100% in boards

Jatin Verma, who secured 100 percentile in four out of five subjects in the Common University Entrance Test UG 2022, says clarity of concepts and multiple revisions are a must.

Jatin Verma from Gurugram is currently in the second year of BA (Hons) Political Science at Hindu College, DU.

4 min readNew DelhiOct 3, 2023 09:27 AM IST First published on: Oct 2, 2023 at 01:01 PM IST

CUET UG: Jatin Verma chose the Science stream in Class 11 but four months into the course, he found himself questioning his choice as his interests lay elsewhere. At the time, he wanted to pursue Law so he took up Humanities and decided to prepare for the Common Law Admission Test, however, he was not able to clear it. He then decided to pursue Political Science at Delhi University because he really enjoyed the subject.

Verma secured 100 percentile in four out of five subjects that he appeared for in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) UG 2022. He is currently in his second year of BA (Hons) Political Science at Hindu College, DU. He spoke to indianexpress.com and shared how he prepared for the exam.

Why did you not appear for CLAT again?

For me, securing a seat in Political Science at a top college was equivalent to clearing CLAT. I can take up law after graduation as well but my inclination is more towards International Relations, especially in International Law. For my master’s, I would like to apply for both, Law and International Relations.

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Plus, the kind of exposure and life Delhi University could provide me, no other university could.

How did you prepare for CUET UG?

Since CUET UG was taking place for the first time, there was a lot of uncertainty about things, however, the topics were specified. In 2022, CBSE conducted the board exams twice – the first term was objective and the second term was subjective so that too, helped me understand how objective-questions-based exams are conducted. I prepared for CUET, the same way I prepared for my CBSE exam. I did multiple revisions, memorised the timelines in History and Political Science, studied case studies in Psychology and ensured that my concepts were clear.

What was your schedule like?

There was no fixed schedule as such; I would set small goals and aim to achieve them. For every chapter, I would do five revisions, three from the textbook and two from the notes I made. Most of the chapters took four to five hours, some even took eight to six hours.

Which books did you refer to?

I stuck to NCERT. Despite it being the first time, there were publishers coming up with new books. I chose to stick with NCERT and ensured that I studied everything and understood the concepts well as conceptual clarity is very important.

What is your opinion about CUET?

Personally, I was not in the 99 per cent club. I secured 94 per cent in the CBSE board exams 2022 and the cut-off for Political Science at Hindu College, the previous year, was 99.8 per cent. According to me, CUET gave everyone the same platform and a chance to secure admission to my dream college.

What would you do for recreation?

I would mostly listen to music or interact with people. Sometimes, I would watch something on an OTT platform.

What would be your advice for students preparing for CUET?

I would say, revise NCERT thoroughly, compromising a bit on your boards is acceptable as the CUET score matters more for admissions. Take into consideration that there is a certain level of transition. Understanding the difference between facts and concepts is important but it can be done only after multiple revisions. Revision is a must.