TPCs prove beneficial to rural students appearing for CBTs

Hyderabad: The Test Practice Centres (TPCs) are coming handy for the rural students aspiring to take computer-based online examinations on par with their urban counterparts.

According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), it has started conducting the JEE (Main), UGC-NET assessment for fellowship, CMAR, GPAT and NEET-UG entrance examinations starting from December 2018. The NTA has been introducing a Computer Based Test (CBT) for different entrance examinations.

Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has mandated the NTA to set up, establish and create a network of TPCs for candidates. This was mainly focusing on remote and rural areas to enable the aspiring candidates to practice and be comfortable in taking a CBT and to compete on par with their urban counterparts.

Further, the NTA said that this facility is made completely free of cost to the candidates. Further, it will also facilitate and ease the process of being able to take a CBT. The NTA has already established TPCs across the country in institutions, colleges and other such entities.

"Candidate will register for TPCs through NTA website or through Mobile App. For Mobile App, candidate will have to search on Play Store for "NTA STUDENT APP", click on the search result of NTA Student and install the application. The Mobile App will include all the features as given for registration through the website, the NTA said.

Once registered the name and time slot booked by the student, the same is sent through an email to the TPC and the student will get an SMS. In turn, showing the SMS, the candidates are allowed to take practice tests at the TPCs.

There is no limit for the number of attempts and candidates can choose time for any number of times for mock tests. The NTA will be paying the charges to the TPCs for extending services and each TPC shall operate on all Saturday afternoon slot from 2:30 pm to 5.30 pm.

However, on Sundays, the TPCs shall operate in two slots from 11 am to 2 pm and 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm. Further, the TPCs operate depending on the number of candidates opted to take mock tests on both the days, it said.

This way, the NTA hopes it will provide an entire experience of using TPCs will be as close to the actual experience of taking a CBT.

As in case of CBT, candidates can familiarise themselves with logging into the system, go through the detailed instructions regarding the test, use the mouse, scroll down to the next question, navigate between questions, review and edit their options and submit questions.