The NLU Delhi entrance test, the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET), has taken place today at physical test centres via a computer-based test.
NLU Delhi’s alternative to the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) has generally drawn upwards of 20,000 candidates, though this year NLU Delhi has refused to engage or confirm any figures to date.
All of our numerous calls to NLU Delhi’s registrar Prof GS Bajpai, who administers the process, have gone unanswered (say what you will about NLSIU Bangalore’s abortive attempt to start its National Law Aptitude Test (NLAT), at least they did share some information and respond to criticism).
By contrast, NLU Delhi has faced flak from candidates for a shortage of test centres in major cities.
The problem had been that some major cities only had two or a few test centres, meaning that on a first-come-first-served basis, all seats had often been quickly snapped up by candidates.
NLU Delhi had responded via the National Testing Agency (NTA) increasing the test centres to 111 in 64 cities and 22 states.
Nevertheless, we had heard some reports from aspirants that they had given up on the Ailet, after even they didn’t manage to get a seat in their home city in time after number of test centres had been increased.
One candidate told us:
On September 16, I received an email asking me to book a slot on the portal of the national testing agency which seems to be conducting the AILET. I immediately logged into the portal but it showed there were no slots available at the only centre in Hyderabad. I tried calling the helpline number and send emails saying that I was unable to book a slot but i did not receive any response.
Two days back, I was able to finally speak to someone from NLU Delhi who informed that there was a technical glitch and that I could rebook the slot for which a link was sent. However, I was still unable to book a a slot.
The NTA is completely unresponsive. The official who till yesterday attended the call after calling them continuously said that they could not help me and that I should reach out to NTA. My correspondence with NLU Delhi is appended for your reference. It is self explanatory. I had sent them almost 20 emails and called them innumerable times over last one week but to no avail. […]
I am resigning myself to the fact that I will not be able to give the exam because the NLU Delhi has not made proper arrangements and the entire exam is left to the mercy of something like an IRCTC system.
My point is that even AILET is also being organised in a haphazard manner. I was able to get in touch with some other people from my coaching class who are also not able to attend because they were not able to book a slot. Since when did Even attending exam become a lottery.
This is also the first major physical law exam in the Covid times and the CLAT is scheduled in two days, on 28 September.
If you have any feedback or criticism of the Ailet, or suggestions for what could be improved, please share your thoughts in the comments.
Update 14:51: Several accounts of Twitter have complained of issues:
Yukti Kashyap tweeted:
Today at AILET exam there was no social distancing, computers did not login at scheduled time students sat there for 2 hours, there were cases of cheating, no invigilator in exam hall. Given it is a national exam this can’t be tolerated
— Yukti Kashyap (@YuktiKashyao) Sat, 26 Sep 2020, 14:35
Malay Pandey tweeted:
Before An hour ago I gave the Ailet 2020 exam for BALLB program. The exam ended with technical issues and more more than 10 minutes got wasted. This technical error compounded with fake promises of providing extension of time by the administration.
— Malay Pandey (@malaypandey) Sat, 26 Sep 2020, 14:28
Sanjeev Chawla tweeted:
@PMOIndia @DrRPNishank @DG_NTA Entrance exam of AILET 2020 is not happening at Sant Gyaneshwar Model School, Alipur, New Delhi, reportedly due to technical glitches. Kindly intervene at the earliest to save future of our kids
— Sanjeev Chawla (@chawla_sanjeev) Sat, 26 Sep 2020, 12:18
inconsequential gibberish tweeted:
It seems like the real entrance test is being able to allocate a test centre to appear for #AILET pg by #nludelhi and @DG_NTA . Terribly disappointed by how poorly the test is being conducted. I haven’t been able to get an admit card and a booking since the past three days.
— inconsequential gibberish (@ArnavSh52576469) Wed, 23 Sep 2020, 13:26
Comments
Although, it should be noted that Ailet had greater number of centers than Clat will.
When I shifted to another PC (which had normal mouse), I had many inconvenience
Secondly, it's not gonna happen
btw there was a question in the exam where the option were like;
a] something....
b]something....
c] BOTH A ND C
it should have been a nd b
The instructions before the starting of the exam instructed that :
answered nd marked will be in blue
ans kept in review will be in orange
But there wasn't anything like that when in the exam
My table has saw dust on it nd when i told the invigi. he blew that away[with his mouth]
So i probably have corona now .
Also only those who just sat outside the centre waiting for the queue to be over were late.
There were 300 kids sitting all squashed up together .. sitting in close proximity with zero social distancing.. they were asked to line up for document verification in a line again without any distancing.
The testing agency did not follow any protocols and followed any SOP's for the same..
They have not been responsible for the health and safety of these children..even after postponing thier exam for Covid sake . And promised all SOP will be in place.. and nothing was adhered to..
If anything is to happen to these children who are mostly college bound in the near future.. who will take the responsibility for their I'll.health if any ..god forbid...
They have forced children to sit at centres for the exam ...and didnt keep up any norms ...
Who do we complain to.now...since the exam is now over and we could not even see what was happening inside...as parents were not allowed...nor were phones for a justifiable reason...but no one could have had the time to take pictures to prove this point.
This is seriously illegal in nature..and that to being done by the NLU
...
It's the shitty experience and glitches and minor but very disturbing & distracting issues and glitches we got to experience!
Don't you get it?
The question paper was an odd mix - lots of questions on the Indian partnership act and on basic contracts and torts principles. Some unfamiliar thinkers were included in the jurisprudence questions.
More than 100 students could not give their #ailet exam. Technical issues at centre, what to do now? #ailet2020isajoke
https://twitter.com/ChiragMCOC/status/1309797955776385025
I've witnessed people cheating with literally no presence of Inviligators. LLM students were helping LLB students!
https://twitter.com/Ishika24206757/status/1309842241641353216
Respected sir it is to inform you that AILET 2020 at some centers was conducted in completely unfair & indisciplined manner. No invigilator & great havoc in some labs, server crash in mid exam, some students came out without giving exam after 2 hrs, also case of cheating
https://twitter.com/AmitSin12765129/status/1309818614975922176
Test Centre Number - "DLNOR172" didn't conducted the #ailet exam. More than 100 students are affected
https://twitter.com/ChiragMCOC/status/1309799035939639296
Sir , the career of 100 students is in danger Due to the lack of management at our respective center. Centre name Krishna digital solution narela opposite cpj college plot no 25/20/2-,.please do something. Ailet exam. We were not able to give exam.
https://twitter.com/Adityap62662696/status/1309782439611441153
He is GS Bajpai.
It fills me with discontent that this is our National Level Examination in 21st Century.
No systematic arrangements were made and social distancing norms were not even feebly brought into action.
A person (who was not even wearing the mask himself) was announcing the names of the students like a lottery wherein only half of the students got the opportunity to sit and give the exam at first. Other half students had to wait for 1.5 hour and no proper information was given to the guardian accompanying the student which left them in stress.
Added to this, one of the diabetic student who came to gave the exam had to wait for 1.5 hours at the center in order to give the exam. It wasn't good for his health too.
There were immense chances of unfair practices as exam was not conducted at the same time for all the candidates. It seemed like a park where anyone can enter at any time and no proper surveillance took place.
Added to this, the servers on which we were giving the examination, they were so outdated that the mathematical symbols of the AILET questions on the screen were not visible. Abox was coming at the place of some symbols and students had to assume what it can be. The questions were not displayed in the correct manner on these screens.
I don't know how the exam was conducted in other centres, but I was truly disappointed by the conduct of AILET examination at Sant Gyaneshwar Model School, Alipur.
I didn't expect such glitch on part of NLU DELHI and NTA.
2. During the examination while trying to click 'next' after marking my answer the system was lagging. The screen froze and I could not do anything. I lost out on a lot of time (in an examination where there already exists a time crunch). The screen froze after every question and even while trying to switch between sections.
3. Towards the end an alert appeared that said '10 minutes remaining', even after repeated efforts the pop up didn't go. The screen had frozen. I asked for help and it took another 2-3 (IN THE LAST 10 MINS) before the screen started working again.
My mindset was completely ruined and I almost broke down. After studying for over 2 years all I really wanted was a fair chance.
instagram - (@x_sanjanaa)
Calling it a national law entrance exam this was not expected, its not possible to tolerate.
Ridiculous.
The attendance sheet was misplaced and my name, along with 4 other students in my class were not printed on the sheet. It created a hassle where over 7-8 invigilators were standing in our classroom trying to locate the sheet while some were not even wearing masks, completely abandoning social distancing protocol. I do not know how smoothly the other centres conducted the exam, but my centre had quite a few problems which were easily forseeable and avoidable.
The centre was neat and well sanitized before hand..there was no proper social distancing norms followed by the invigilators.
1)Masks were not provided if we were already wearing ones that looked similar to theirs.(Savings u see).
2)Thermal guns used.
3)No frisking,checking for UFM,phones or using the metal detector.
4)Invigilator came at 10.45am and started verifying at 10.55am.
5)They never asked us to start our tests,it was only after all the students prompted that the exam was allowed to commence.
6)Invigilator interrupted our exam to get our photos taken and even asked us to remove our masks in the middle of the exam and wasted a good 3-4 mins.
7)Attendance sheets were passed in the middle of the exam..it was a 20-30 pg booklet and we had to skim through it in the middle of the exam and locate our id and then sign it.
8)We had a nice computer lab which was also air conditioned..(Temperatures were a little freezing though).
9)There was a 3-4 second lag between the questions in the system..which was sometimes a pain.
10)In the last 10mins we got an alert regarding the time...but it was tough to dismiss this popup..and this continued till the last 50seconds..this was pretty irritating though..
11)only 1 rough sheet was provided instead of 5..looks like they were cost cutting..
There was no major technical glitches as such in our centre...the exam went like a breeze..the centre was good and well maintained...
We only had a problem with the invigilators who came late and wasted a lot of time!
If Im not wrong..he also did not ask us to sign in our admit cards..something which has to be done in his presence only,but he turned up late!
No one was invigilating, no social distancing, invigilators weren't wearing any mask. And not to forget the main issue system glitch. Not only me but from the sound of banging the mouse on the table I could confirm that everyone was facing problem with mouse. To make it function properly we have to bang the mouse on the table. Due to which time also got wasted. If I click on the next ques. or option now it would response after 1 or 2 minutes later. Other than mouse wasting our time, invigilators also didn't leave any chance. They were taking attendence during exam. One time they would ask Id then after some time they would come again and ask for passport photograph for pasting on attendence sheet and signature then after some time they would come for clicking photo, That time I was like, Dude! Just take everything at once' why wasting my time?
I seriously want this exam to get cancelled...
If NLUD can do their own exam, why bother with the CLAT?