How important is Language Test (Section 1) of CUET 2022?

Section 1 of CUET 2022 offers tests in 33 languages. These 33 languages have been divided into two subsections: 1A and 1B. Subsection 1A offers the languages (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu) that can be opted as the medium for the Domain-Specific Subject tests (Section 2) as well as the General Test (Section 3).

First of all, we must keep in mind that English or Hindi is NOT compulsory in the CUET. There are very few courses for which English Language Test is compulsory across universities. E.g. out of 74 courses being offered by University of Delhi, there are only two- B.A. (Hons.) English and B.A. (Hons.) Journalism- for which English Language test is compulsory.
 

Importance of the Language Test:

Most of the courses in University of Delhi (DU) expect you to take 4 tests of CUET 2022. For these courses the weight of the Language Test will be 25% (1 out of 4 tests). DU is yet to tell us whether they would be scaling the General Test against other tests i.e. if the General Test (60 questions) will carry the same weight as the other tests (40 questions).

All courses in Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences and Commerce offered by DU will have 25% weight for the Language Test. In Science courses offered by DU also, there are four popular courses for which the weight of the Language Test will be 25%. These courses are: B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, B.Sc. (Hons.) Statistics, B.Sc. (Hons.) Computer Science and B.Sc. (Prog.) Mathematical Sciences. There are, of course, many courses offered by DU in Science for which you just need to get at least 30% in Language Test and your score in Language Test will NOT be added to your total score that will be considered for creating the merit list; in other words, for these courses Language Test is just “qualifying”.

As DU will consider the best score of all eligible combinations of CUET 2022 tests for admission in its undergraduate programs, one strategy can be to take the Language Test in 2 subjects, e.g. Hindi and English. Suppose you score 170 in Hindi and 190 in English, then DU will consider 190 as your score in the Language section. These 20 marks can prove to be vital in many cases.

In the case of Banaras Hindu University (BHU)- no matter which undergraduate course you opt for-  if there is a Language Test, it has to be either Hindi or English.

B.A. (Hons.) Social Sciences include History, Political Science, Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Mathematics, Statistics and Economics in case of the BHU. If you apply for the B.A. (Hons.) in Social Sciences, you have to take just two tests: English or Hindi from Section 1 and General Test (Section 3), but only 50% of your score in Hindi/English and 100% of your score in General Test will be added to the merit list. E.g. if you score 180 in Hindi/English and 250 in the General Test, your overall score will be the sum of 90 (half of 180) and 250. Thus we can say that the weight of Language Test is 25% .

Similarly, B.A. (Hons.) Arts at BHU also give 25% weight to the Language Test. The subjects included in Arts are Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Persian, Pali, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Nepali, English, Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Russian, Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, History of Art, Philosophy, Linguistics, Geography, Mathematics, Statistics, Tourism and Travel Management, Economics.

For B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) at BHU, you need to take Language Test (English/Hindi), Legal Studies Test and General Test. Your final score in the merit list will be 50% of the score of Language Test+ 100% score of Legal Studies Test+ 100% of score of General Test. Thus, 16.67% weight is given to your score in the Language Test.

For taking admission in any UG course offered by University of Allahabad , a Language Test (English/Hindi) is compulsory.

Not many students know that Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) offers 3 courses at undergraduate level:

  1. B.A. in Social Work (BSW): It is a 4-year program offered at Tuljapur (Maharashtra) campus of TISS.
  2. B.A. in Social Sciences (BASS): it is a 4-year program offered at Tuljapur and Guwahati campuses of TISS.
  3. B.S. in Analytics and Sustainability Studies: It is a 4-year program offered at Mumbai campus of TISS.

For each of these 3 courses at TISS, you need to take just two tests: English Language Test and General Test.
Thus the importance of the Language Test cannot be overstated for taking admission in the undergraduate courses at TISS.

Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) offers B.A. (Hons.) courses in 10 languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Pashto, Persian, Russian and Spanish. For each of these courses, you need to take the English Language Test as well the General Test (only these two!). I am sure you are fully aware of the importance of the Language Test as far as the JNU admissions at undergraduate level are concerned.

How to prepare for the Language Test of the CUET 2022?        
First of all, you must keep the syllabus of the test in mind. The syllabus mentions 6 topics:

  1. Reading Comprehension (passages of NOT more than 350 words)
    There will be three types of passages: factual, narrative and literary.
  2. Verbal Ability
  3. Rearranging the parts (of a passage or a sentence)
  4. Choosing the correct words
  5. Antonyms and Synonyms
  6. Vocabulary

We at CUET100 believe that Vocabulary is going to play a very important role as three out of the six parts of the syllabus are based on Vocabulary. Doing the sample papers provided by the NTA and some other mock tests is very important as we need accuracy and speed to do 40 questions in 45 minutes. The NTA had released some Mock Tests for CUET 2022, but they have removed them now. Hopefully, we will get to see these tests again.