Mumbai: Despite a marked increase in the Class 10 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam scores this year, the first round of First Year Junior College (FYJC) admissions in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) saw a slight drop in cut-offs in Arts and Commerce streams, even as Science lists recorded marginally higher score thresholds.
The dip in cut-offs was more pronounced in the Arts stream, with most of the popular junior colleges closing their first round of admissions at around 1% point lower scores than last year. The Commerce stream was a mixed bag, with some colleges witnessing less than 1% point drop in cut-offs while others saw up to a 2% point surge. The Science cut-offs largely increased in the range of 0.2-2% points.
The variations come in the backdrop of a record high state board exam result, with the pass percentage of Mumbai division, which comprises the city, Palghar, Thane, Raigarh and Palghar districts, rising from 92.26% to 93.88% in 2023. There was also an uptick in the number of students scoring more than 90% in the region from 11,785 to 13,430.
On the other hand, there was a slight dip in students' performance in the national boards’s class 10 exams. Parag Ajgaonkar, principal of NM College at Vile Parle, suggests that the lowering of Arts and Commerce cut-offs could result from more students opting for the Science branch this year. Buoyed by their higher scores, the candidates might have favoured the latter over the former, he said.
However, Pooja Ramchandani, principal of HR College at Churchgate, points out the disparity in scores of the students allotted seats in the first round to explain the lower cut-offs. “While we saw a larger number of candidates with scores around 99% in the first list, there was a sudden drop in the marks of the student cohort following them. It seems that the national boards graded students more generously, while the state board students got fewer points,” she said.
The first round of the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) for FYJC saw around 1.31 lakh students getting allotted seats in junior colleges at MMR, even though around 2.28 lakh students had registered for admissions. The majority of the students who were allotted seats in the first round got one of their first two choices of junior colleges.
While 55.655 of students got their first preference, the number of students getting their second and third preferred institute was 20,783 and 14,448. Those who got their first choice of institute are mandatorily required to confirm their admissions, while others have an option of accepting their seats or participating in the subsequent admission rounds.
