Did CUET diminish the relevance of 12th Board exams?

Taking CUET exam has been made compulsory to secure a seat in as many as 86 Central Universities, State Universities, Deemed Universities and Private Universities. NTA released the CUET exam dates 2026. The exams will be held between May 11 and 31, 2026 in CBT mode. Did CUET make board exams redundant? Read on to know…

The acceptance of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA), for undergraduate admissions in all central universities has attracted mixed reactions towards the relevance of 12th board exams. As students can now secure a seat in colleges/universities only based on their performance in CUET, is putting effort to score above 85-90 per cent in board exams required anymore? Read on to know...

What is CUET?

Started in the year 2022, CUET is an all-India level entrance exam conducted by NTA for admission in UG courses offered in all the participating institutions. CUET 2026 scores will be accepted by 86 Central Universities, State Universities, Deemed Universities and Private Universities. The exam is conducted once a year in over 500 cities in India and abroad in a computer-based mode for two hours. The question paper of CUET 2026 includes a compulsory language test, two domain-specific tests, and a general test.

No Impact of CUET on 12th Board Exams

University Grants Commission Chairman Jagadesh Kumar, while addressing the media, said that the universities still use board exams as the qualifying criteria. Some universities can peg the requirement at 60 per cent, some may choose to set 70 per cent, so there is no question of board exams being made irrelevant. However, the focus on getting 100 per cent marks is reduced. Instances of a student getting 98 per cent but still not getting admission to a good college, are very low.

With CUET becoming mandatory, it is believed that students will start taking coaching to ace the exam. Speaking on this, he added, "CUET will neither make the board exams irrelevant nor give a push to coaching culture." He added that students from state boards will not be at a disadvantage in the undergraduate admissions process.

According to Harish Chand, Vice Principal of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, INA Delhi, “The board exams have not lost their relevance with the conduct of CUET. This is because there is pressure built up by parents and society on students from early on to perform well in board exams. There are only 10-12 per cent of students who study just to pass the exams. Others put in their hard work, and scoring well boosts their confidence.”

“Another reason is that the syllabus of CBSE 12th and CUET exams is almost the same.  While studying for 12th board exams, they also prepare for the CUET UG exams. Thus, most of the students who obtain a good score in boards also perform well in CUET. In our school, we guide students about CUET-, explaining to them the pattern, syllabus, questions asked on logical reasoning, and more. This is done to make them aware of the CUET exam and motivate them to study hard,” he added.

Board exams will lose their relevance 

Raminder Kaur, a Science teacher in a private school in Delhi, said that the introduction of CUET for admission to colleges/universities definitely has left a considerable impact on the performance in school board exams. Admission to college/universities based on CUET will result in students not focusing on their school exams, unlike previous years when high marks were required to meet the cut offs set by colleges. With the requirement of just 50-60 per cent in board exams to appear in CUET, students now concentrate on solving logical reasoning questions and other such MCQs.”

Speaking on what will happen to students who do not perform well in CUET and also in board exams, she said that many colleges and universities fill their vacant seats with students who just meet the requirements of writing CUET exam and applying for admission to these institutes.

According to Taran, a Class 12 student in Green Fields School, New Delhi, “I feel board exams are not being given as much importance as earlier due to the introduction of CUET. Even though the syllabus is the same, we will now focus on answering and practising the type of questions asked in the competitive exam. However, we will study for board exams to meet the minimum requirement of marks to write CUET.”

Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC), believes CUET may dilute the importance of school education. “This will have long-term repercussions on the quality of education delivered at the school level. While International universities require annual scores of class 11 and predicted scores of 12, unfortunately, these scores will stand ineffectual for our Indian universities.”

CUET Exam 2026

NTA will conduct the CUET 2026 exam between May 11 and 31, 2026. The detailed CUET date sheet 2026 will be released in April 2026 on the official website. Aspirants can know the subject-wise date sheet of CUET 2026. NTA administers the CUET UG 2026 in Computer-based test (CBT) mode only. Approximately 13.48 lakh candidates across 380 cities, including 26 cities abroad, appear for the examination at diverse multiple centres. Candidates can select up to 5 CUET subjects of a total 37 subjects. The CUET 2026 slot timings are communicated to the candidates based on the subjects applied for. Candidates can check the slot timing on the release of the CUET admit card. The CUET UG exam duration is 60 minutes.

Read More:

• CUET 2026 Exam pattern
• CUET Question Papers 2026