The Supreme Court has given nod to the CBSE’s proposal to have multiple choice objective type tests in both the preliminary and final exams for filling up the 15% of the seats of various medical colleges in India that are open to applicants across the country irrespective of their domicile.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam permitted the CBSE to implement the new pattern after it confronted problems in the present system of tests.

In its request the CBSE submitted that the non-objective type evaluation was a long process, which causes tremendous stress for students.

“Further due to paucity of time left for counselling after the declaration of result, it becomes very difficult to conduct both the rounds of counselling within the stipulated time limit,” it said.

“Due to the introduction of non-objective type pattern of examination, not only are the candidates under tremendous stress, but there is also inevitably a large element of subjectivity involved in the evaluation,” it also said.

The CBSE said that in the light of the problems experienced since 2004, there was an immediate need to appraise the examination system to eradicate the defects of the current system without disturbing the quality of the selected candidates.

A top-level group had suggested that both the preliminary and final tests should be conducted with objective type questions from the upcoming academic year (2009).

The preliminary exam will have 200 questions and each question will carry 4 marks for a right answer and 1 negative mark for a wrong answer and the duration is 3 hours.

The final exam would have duration of 3 hrs of 120 questions and carry same marks of preliminary.

The eligibility conditions for CET remains the same.