The Hindu : New Delhi News : Journalism entrance tests begin next week

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Journalism entrance tests begin next week

Parul Sharma

Five colleges of Delhi University offering the course; exams to assess awareness level

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Fingers crossed: Admission seekers at tDelhi University on a hot, humid Thursday afternoon.

NEW DELHI: Students wanting to study one of the most sought-after courses offered by Delhi University -- B. A. (Honours) Journalism -- are bracing themselves up for the entrance examination due next week.

Five colleges, including three women’s institutions, offer the journalism programme. They are Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Kalindi College, Kamla Nehru College, Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Maharaja Agrasen College. These five institutions hold separate entrance examinations for the course and the centralised pre-admission forms are not applicable. Newcomers have to buy the college prospectus and a separate form for the same. Each of the five colleges has a different criterion for admitting students to the course.

At Maharaja Agrasen College, 50 per cent weightage is given to ‘best four’ marks in Class XII, 35 per cent to the written exam and the remaining 15 per cent to the interview. LSR College does not conduct any interviews.

“The students are selected on the basis of their performance in the written test. After getting the applications from the students, we will fix a cut-off for their ‘best four’ in Class XII, including a separate cut-off for English scores. Then we will display a list of candidates considered eligible for the written exam on June 19. The relaxation for the OBC candidates will be after the entrance test,” said Ambar Ahmad of LSR faculty.

The LSR written paper for journalism will primarily assess the awareness levels of students about world affairs as well as their analytical skills and ability to interpret. “We will not ask general knowledge questions, but essentially check their general awareness on national and international affairs. We will test their language skills and clarity of thought. Students should be reading newspapers, including their editorials, and news magazines to prepare for the exam,” she added.

Maharaja Agrasen College will hold its entrance exam for the course on June 20 after which students will be short-listed for an interview on June 28. “The 70-mark entrance exam will be divided into two parts, one on English composition and the other on general awareness. Journalism is one of our popular courses. In the past one year we have set up a media lab and are providing filmmaking and editing facilities. We also have add-on courses to give our journalism students some practical experience,” said Principal Sunil Sondhi.

College teachers feel there are numerous career options available to candidates after completing the journalism course, with students being absorbed in several newspapers, channels and news portals.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi