Bengaluru: Students from Bengaluru colleges bagged all the top 10 ranks in engineering in the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2024 results announced on Saturday.
Interestingly, of the top 10 rank holders in engineering, nine were from colleges affiliated to other boards and only one student was from a state pre-university college. The trend was similar in all the seven streams with only three students from state pre-university colleges among the top 10. KCET results are available on http://kea.kar.nic.in
This time, since the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board had conducted three exams, KEA considered best of the two from PUC 2 exams while giving KCET ranks.
Harsha Karthikeya Vutukuri from Narayana Olympiad School, Sahakaranagar emerged as the state topper in engineering. He also bagged the second rank in B.Pharm.
Nihar S R from Expert Pre-University Science College, Mangaluru got the first rank in Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences (BNYS) and B.Sc (Agriculture). He also secured the third rank in B.V.Sc (Veterinary), fifth rank in B.Pharm and Pharm-D respectively and third rank in B.Sc nursing. Kalyan V of Sri Chaitanya Techno School, Marathahalli, Bengaluru secured the top rank in four streams including B.V.Sc, B.Pharm, Pharm-D and B.Sc Nursing.
The KEA said that if the results were withheld/not announced for want of 2nd PUC/12th standard marks card/proof of date of birth, such candidates have to enter their marks in the KEA marks entry portal after which KEA will publish the results. It has been informed that assigning ranks does not confer the right of a candidate to select seats until the original documents are verified during verification process.
KCET is a gateway for admissions to undergraduate professional courses (except medical and dental) in the state for which the exam was held on April 18 and 19 amid a row over out-of-syllabus questions for more than 50 marks. Following protests, the department of higher education announced the evaluation by omitting out-of-syllabus question.
According to the KEA, of the total 3,49,653 students registered, 3,10,314 appeared for KCET. Of these, 2.75 lakh students were eligible for engineering, 2.19 lakh students for BNYS, 2.15 lakh for B.Sc (Agri), 2.19 lakh for B.V.Sc, 2.78 lakh for B.Pharm, 2.79 lakh Pharm-D and 2.28 lakh for B.Sc Nursing.
The announcement of results without prior intimation has shocked several students who struggled to find their results as the KEA website was down. Meanwhile, some students and parents alleged mistakes in rankings.
A parent told DH said that though their daughter appeared for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in KCET, she was not assigned any rank. “She scored 96% in PCM in PUC 2, but the KCET said she was absent for PCM and awarded no rank. She was shocked and broke down,” the parent said.
Another parent said their son’s board exam marks were entered wrongly. “Entering the board exam marks wrongly will impact KCET results as the KEA considers even PUC 2 marks while awarding ranks,” said the parent.