Are MCQ-based Humanities entrance exams testing the right skills?
The Hindu analyzes the effectiveness of MCQ-based entrance exams for Humanities courses, noting a heavy reliance on factual recall over conceptual understanding. The study suggests that current testing formats may not adequately measure the analytical skills required for advanced academic study.
Why it matters
The debate over standardized testing formats impacts how higher education institutions select candidates and how students prepare for academic careers.
Who was the ruler who called himself “devaputra”, or “son of god”?
This is a question that can make a student preparing for a Humanities entrance examination stop and search their memory. This question appeared in the Common University Entrance Test-UG (CUET-UG) History paper in 2025. The answer is a Kushana ruler.
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A 2025 CUET-PG English paper asks candidates to match Bartleby, Project MUSE, WorldCat and Shodhganga with the type of research material they provide. In the UGC-NET English examination, candidates encounter questions such as: Who defined culture as “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”? The answer is literary critic Raymond Williams.
Then there are questions based on an unfamiliar passage, where the candidate has to understand what a writer is saying or draw an inference from the text.
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