New Delhi: The application forms for the Delhi University (DU) Common Aptitude Test for English (CATE) 2011 will be issued from May 16, 2011. It is an entrance test conducted for all DU English honors aspirants. CATE 2011 application forms will be available at twenty-one DU affiliated colleges till May 26, 2011.
This year, the department of English is also starting dedicated help lines for CATE aspirants. The University will provide five mobile numbers as help lines, which will be functioning from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm every day and the numbers shall be put on the DU website by Wednesday i.e. from May 11, 2011.
CATE 2011 is scheduled to be held on June 5, 2011. This year, all the 21 DU colleges will admit students on the basis of their CATE scores and Class XII marks with 70% and 30% weightage respectively. While Lady Shri Ram College for Women has finally consented to be a part of CATE, four other colleges- Kirori Mal College, Janaki Devi Mahavidyalaya, Rajdhani College and Vivekananda College have decided to enroll students on basis of CATE score, this year. About 1000 seats will be available for admission in these 21 colleges.
Sumanyu Satpathy, Head of the Department of English that conducts CATE every year, has said that earlier many students used to take admission in BA (honors) English course just because they think they have a good command over the language. He mentioned that soon they tend to lose interest in the subject and most of them even drop out. But now with CATE, one positive result is that the number of such students has reduced significantly. He also added that CATE will test candidates' aptitude for literature and creative writing skills.
As per sources, the department started with 12 colleges in 2009, which increased to 17 last year and this year, it will be the third edition of CATE in DU. Sumanyu Satpathy has also added that now more and more colleges have understood the benefit of selecting students on the basis of CATE. This is the reason why the number of participating colleges has been increasing gradually.
