How to apply for CUET-UG — complete 2026 guide

CUET-UG 2025 had 13.47 lakh registered candidates across 64 subjects + general / language tests. The exam was conducted over 15 days in multiple shifts at 300+ centres in India and 26 cities abroad. NTA used percentile-based normalisation to equate scores across shifts. The single biggest source of confusion (and complaint) was subject choice + university course mismatch — read the next sections carefully.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was introduced as a recommendation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 (Para 4.42 and 11.5), which envisaged a single, transparent, equitable entrance test for undergraduate admissions across India. UGC notified the framework in March 2022, and CUET-UG was conducted for the first time in 2022 (replacing earlier separate entrance tests of DU, JNU, BHU, etc., for most UG courses).

The National Testing Agency (NTA) was established as a society in 2017 under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MoE). NTA conducts CUET-UG, CUET-PG, JEE Main, NEET-UG, UGC-NET, CSIR-UGC NET, ICAR-AIEEA, and several Ministry-of-Education entrance exams.

Universities participating in CUET-UG fall into three groups:

• Central Universities (47): mandatory CUET adoption for all UG admissions (since 2022). Examples: DU, JNU, BHU, AMU, JMI, University of Hyderabad, Visva-Bharati, Pondicherry, Tezpur, NEHU, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram.
• State Universities (40+): voluntary adoption. Examples: Punjab University, Tamil Nadu State Universities (some), West Bengal (some).
• Deemed + Private Universities (200+): voluntary; many use CUET as one of several admission routes. Examples: TISS, Symbiosis (some courses), MIT-WPU, BITS (no — it has its own BITSAT), Jamia Hamdard.

CUET score is valid only for the year of the test.

Drops in last week of February / first week of March each year on cuet.samarth.ac.in (and announced on cuet.nta.nic.in). Read:

• Eligibility (citizenship, Class 12 pass / appearing rules)
• List of participating universities — university-wise course list, eligibility, subject combination required
• Subject list (64 subjects + 13 language papers + General Test as of 2025)
• Exam pattern
• Fee structure (per subject slab)
• Important dates
• Annexure: subject combination by course by university — the most important annexure

• Class 12 pass / appearing from any recognised board (CBSE / ICSE / state boards / NIOS / IB / Cambridge IGCSE).
• No upper age limit at NTA's end (since 2022, after NTA dropped age cap). Individual universities may impose age limits — check the university's UG prospectus.
• Citizenship: Indian citizen, OCI, NRI, foreign national — all can apply. Foreign nationals follow separate quota at participating universities.
• Stream requirements — controlled by the course you eventually want, not by NTA:
  • B.Tech / B.E. — needs Physics + Chemistry + Mathematics in CUET (and in Class 12).
  • B.Sc. (Maths Hons) — needs Mathematics in CUET.
  • B.A. (Hons) Economics at most universities — needs Mathematics in Class 12 (and either Maths or General Test in CUET, varies).
  • B.Sc. Biology / B.Sc. Botany / Zoology — needs Biology in CUET.
  • B.Com. (Hons) — Math optional at most universities (DU recommended Maths till 2024; relaxed since).
  • B.A. (Humanities) — language + General Test usually sufficient.
• Read the participating university's course-wise subject mapping table (Annexure A in NTA notification + university's own UG prospectus).

• Visit cuet.samarth.ac.in → “New Registration”.
• Provide: name (as in Class 10 / 12 marksheet), DOB, gender, parents' names, mobile, email, full address.
• Aadhaar OTP eKYC is the preferred verification (since 2024); other ID-based verification also allowed (PAN, Passport, Driving Licence, Class 10 marksheet number).
• System generates: Application Number + Password — note both.

• Personal: auto-pulled from Aadhaar / earlier registration.
• Educational: Class 10 board, year, %; Class 12 board, year, expected/actual %, subjects.
• Choice of university: pick up to 6 universities at this stage (some years it's all 280+ available with no cap; verify in the year's notification).
• Choice of subjects (Domain + Language + General Test):
  • Language papers (List A — 13 languages): English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. Choose at least 1 mandatory.
  • Additional Language papers (List B — 19 more): Arabic, Bodo, Chinese, Dogri, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Persian, Russian, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Spanish, Tibetan. Optional.
  • Domain Subjects (List C — 27 subjects): Accountancy, Agriculture, Anthropology, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering Graphics, Environmental Studies, Geography, History, Home Science, Knowledge Tradition - Practices India, Legal Studies, Mass Media / Mass Communication, Mathematics / Applied Mathematics, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sanskrit, Sociology, Teaching Aptitude, Telugu/etc.
  • General Test: GK + General Mental Ability + Numerical Ability + Quantitative Reasoning + Logical Reasoning. Strongly recommended — many BA / BCom / BBA programmes mandate it.
• Maximum subjects: 6 (since CUET 2024). Earlier 10. Anjali chose 5.
• Choice of medium: for each subject — English, Hindi, or one of 13 languages (where the paper is bilingual).
• Choice of exam city: rank up to 4 cities. NTA tries to allot first preference but sometimes assigns second/third.

• Photograph — 10-200 KB, JPG, recent (within last 6 months), light background, face visible, no goggles / cap.
• Signature — 4-30 KB, JPG, in black ink on white paper, scanned cleanly.
• Class 10 marksheet — PDF, 50-300 KB.
• Class 12 marksheet (if available) — PDF, 50-300 KB. If Class 12 is “appearing”, provide the school's bona fide certificate or admit card.
• Caste certificate (SC/ST/OBC-NCL/EWS) — central format, current FY for EWS.
• PwBD certificate — UDID format from swavlambancard.gov.in.

• Fee structure (2025):
  • General: ₹750 (up to 3 subjects); ₹400 per additional subject (i.e., ₹1,150 for 4; ₹1,550 for 5; ₹1,950 for 6).
  • OBC-NCL / EWS: ₹650 (up to 3 subjects); ₹350 per additional.
  • SC / ST / PwBD / Third Gender: ₹550 (up to 3 subjects); ₹300 per additional.
  • Foreign / OCI: ₹4,000 (up to 3); ₹1,000 per additional.
• Payment by net banking, debit/credit card, UPI, BHIM.
• Submit. Print acknowledgement.

• Released 3-7 days before exam start (typically late April / first week of May).
• Login → “Admit Card” → download.
• Carry: printout (colour preferred) + original photo ID + 2 passport photos + transparent water bottle.

• Mode: Online Computer-Based Test (CBT).
• Duration: 45-60 min per subject (most are 45 min; some are 60 min).
• Pattern per subject: 50 questions, attempt all 50 (since 2024 — earlier 50/40 attempt rule); 5 marks per correct, −1 per wrong.
• Total marks per subject: 250.
• Schedule: 4-15 days; multiple shifts per day. Each candidate may be split across 2 days depending on subject combination.
• AI-based normalisation across shifts: since some subjects are held in multiple shifts, NTA uses percentile equipercentile normalisation; raw marks are converted to percentile + then back to scaled marks for the merit list.

• Provisional answer key: released ~7-10 days after the exam ends. Window of 3-5 days for paid challenges (₹200 per question challenged; refunded if accepted).
• Final answer key + result: ~30-45 days after the exam.
• Scorecard: subject-wise raw marks + percentile + total. No category-wise rank from NTA — universities compute their own merit list using your scorecard.

• CUET is the entrance test, not the admission portal. Each university runs its own admission process using your CUET score:
  • DU: CSAS (Common Seat Allocation System) at admission.uod.ac.in — list colleges + courses in preference order; allocation by CUET score + reservation.
  • JNU: UG admission portal at jnuee.jnu.ac.in.
  • BHU: ug.bhuonline.in.
  • AMU: amucontrollerexams.com.
  • State universities: their own admission portals.
• Some universities (St. Stephen's at DU, Jamia Millia for some courses, IIITs accepting CUET): additional interview / aptitude test on top of CUET.

+---------------------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| Category            | 1-3     | 4 sub    | 5 sub    | 6 sub    | Foreign  |
|                     | subj    |          |          |          | (any)    |
+---------------------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| General             | ₹750    | ₹1,150   | ₹1,550   | ₹1,950   | ₹4,000+  |
+---------------------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| OBC-NCL / EWS       | ₹650    | ₹1,000   | ₹1,350   | ₹1,700   | ₹4,000+  |
+---------------------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| SC / ST / PwBD /    | ₹550    | ₹850     | ₹1,150   | ₹1,450   | ₹4,000+  |
| Third Gender        |         |          |          |          |          |
+---------------------+---------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

Per-subject marks: 50 Q × 5 = 250 marks; -1 per wrong; 45-60 min per subject.

Sample course → subject combination:
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Course                           | CUET subjects required               |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.Tech / B.E.                    | Physics + Chemistry + Mathematics    |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.Sc. (Maths Hons)               | Mathematics + GT (recommended)       |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.A. (Hons) Economics, DU        | Maths or GT + 2 of (Eco, Hist, PolSc)|
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.A. (Hons) English, DU          | English + 2 humanities + GT          |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.Com. (Hons), DU                | English + GT + Maths/Bus.St/Eco/Acct |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| B.Sc. Botany / Zoology, BHU      | Biology + Chemistry (+ Phys/Maths)   |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| 5-yr LLB integrated, NLU CLAT    | NOT via CUET — CLAT is separate      |
+----------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

RTI fee to PIO NTA: ₹10 by IPO. BPL = free.

• Photo / signature wrong format / size. Most common rejection. Use online image cropper on the NTA portal.
• Class 12 marksheet not yet released. You can apply with the school's bona fide certificate + provisional details. Upload Class 12 final marksheet later (NTA opens an upload window after Class 12 results).
• Subject combination conflict with target course. Anjali's friend wanted B.Tech but didn't take Maths in CUET — she missed eligibility for every IIIT / Central University B.Tech. Always cross-check the participating university's course-wise subject mapping before locking subjects.
• University preference not available for chosen subjects. Some universities map specific subjects to specific courses; if you didn't take Sanskrit but want B.A. Sanskrit at BHU, you're out.
• Payment failure — wait 72 hours for auto-reversal. Don't retry. Check transaction status on portal.
• Aadhaar / eKYC mismatch — name spelling differs from Class 10 / 12. Update Aadhaar first.
• Centre allotment in distant city — applying late often results in 4th-preference centre. NTA does not change centres post-allotment except in genuine medical emergencies (with documents).
• Normalisation confusion — your raw score in shift A may differ from your scaled score. NTA's normalisation formula is published in the notice; if you score higher in raw but lower in scaled, the formula has worked for the average difficulty of the shift.
• Multiple subject paper clashes — NTA tries to schedule conflict-free, but if you take 5+ subjects, two may fall on the same day in different shifts. Plan stamina.

• 011-40759000 / 011-69227700 (10 am – 6 pm, Mon-Sat).
• Email: cuet-ug@nta.ac.in (CUET UG specific) / cuet@nta.ac.in.
• Best for: payment failure, login lockout, admit card not generated, last-day glitch.

• cuet.samarth.ac.in → “Public Notice / Grievance” → fill ticket. SLA 7 working days.
• Or write to: director@nta.ac.in (Director General NTA).

• https://pgportal.gov.in → Ministry: “Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education” → sub-organisation: “National Testing Agency”.
• Higher visibility. Routes to JS-level officer in MoE.

• UGC has supervisory role over CUET (per its 2022 framework notification). For systemic issues (e.g., normalisation methodology dispute), you may write to UGC Chairman, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi. Note: UGC will not interfere with individual scores.

NTA is a public authority under §2(h) of the RTI Act 2005 — confirmed by CIC in multiple orders since 2018 (NTA is set up by MoE; substantially financed by it).

• PIO NTA: The CPIO, National Testing Agency, First Floor, NSIC-MDBP Building, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase-3, New Delhi – 110020.

RTI helps here when:

• Mark sheet / scorecard of CUET — published officially, but if you want a certified copy for university scrutiny or want a breakdown of raw vs scaled marks, RTI works. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) 8 SCC 497 applies.
• Final answer key — if you challenged a question and want to know whether NTA's expert committee accepted/rejected the challenge with reasons, RTI extracts the expert committee's note (sometimes redacted under §8(1)(d)).
• Normalisation formula application — NTA publishes the percentile equipercentile method, but RTI can extract shift-wise mean/SD used to compute your scaled marks.
• Reason for centre allotment — if you got 4th-preference centre and feel slighted, RTI to NTA for the seat-allocation logic for your application.
• Number of candidates appeared / qualified, category-wise — useful for transparency / preparation.
• Question bank / model question paper of past CUET subject — partially available; some years released by NTA itself.

See: RTI in 12 simple steps and Challenging an exam result — revaluation, re-scrutiny, RTI.

RTI does NOT help here when:

• You want NTA to revise your marks — RTI is information-only. The only mark-revision route is the paid answer-key challenge window announced after the provisional key. Once the final key is out, no individual revision.
• You want admission at a specific university — NTA only conducts the test. Admission is the university's decision, governed by the university's CSAS / merit list. RTI to the university (also a public authority) for admission criteria, cutoffs, seat matrix.
• You disagree with the normalisation formula — that's NTA's policy. Approach NTA / MoE / UGC with representations; RTI can extract the formula but not change it.
• You want another candidate's marks / personal data — denied under §8(1)(j).
• You want question-paper “leak” investigation — NTA denies under §8(1)(g) and (h) when investigation is pending or law-and-order is involved.
• Foreign-quota seat at central university — separate quota, controlled by Ministry of External Affairs / individual university; not NTA-controlled.

Q. I took CUET-UG last year and my Class 12 result was bad. Can I reapply this year?
Yes. CUET score is valid only for the year of the test. You may reapply afresh; there's no cap on attempts. Many candidates take 2-3 cycles.

Q. I'm appearing in Class 12 in 2026. Can I still apply for CUET 2026?
Yes. Mark “appearing” in the form. Upload bona fide certificate. After Class 12 result, NTA opens a window to upload the final marksheet — universities will use it for final eligibility check.

Q. Can I change my subject choice after submitting?
NTA usually opens a Correction Window of 3-5 days after applications close. Some fields are correctable; others (DOB, gender, category) are permanent.

Q. My CUET score is high but DU's CSAS placed me at a lower-preference college. Why?
DU's CSAS uses a combined score (CUET subject scores in the eligibility combination + reservation + best-of-four logic for some courses). High CUET score in irrelevant subjects (e.g., Sanskrit when applying to Eco Hons) may not help. Check DU's UG bulletin for the exact formula.

Q. I attempted negative marks and lost score. Was there a way out?
No — the −1 negative marking is part of the test. Strategy: don't attempt questions you're guessing wildly on. NTA's data shows most high scorers attempted 40-45 of 50 questions per subject, not all 50.

Q. Some universities have a separate interview after CUET (St. Stephen's, JMI for some courses). How does that work?
For these, CUET score is a threshold filter. Once shortlisted, the interview / GD / additional written test (per university's policy) decides the final merit. Anjali's St. Stephen's interview was 30 minutes, panel of 3, focused on Eco basics + her Class 12 + general worldview.

Q. Will the same CUET score work for B.A. + B.Sc. + B.Com. all at once?
Yes — your scorecard has all subject scores. You apply to each course with the relevant subject score on each university's admission portal. The CUET application stage just requires you to have written the relevant subjects.

Q. CUET-PG is the same thing for postgrad?
Yes — CUET-PG is conducted by NTA for postgraduate admissions across central universities (and some others). Separate notification (typically Jan-Feb), separate fee, separate portal: cuet.nta.nic.in (PG section).

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Last reviewed: 26 April 2026 by RTI Wiki editorial team. CUET notification dates, subject lists, fee structures and participating universities are notified afresh each year — verify on cuet.samarth.ac.in / cuet.nta.nic.in or write to admin@bighelpers.in if you spot a stale figure.