India’s entrance exams like Sorting Hat, says Hindustan Times

Hindustan Times has compared India's entrance exams such as CUET, NEET and JEE to the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, arguing their opaque processes cause psychological harm. The article says the National Testing Agency does not disclose the normalisation formula, students cannot see their own marked papers, and there is no real accountability for errors. It notes that roughly 14,488 students died by suicide in 2024, with 'failure in examination' cited in over 2,000 of those deaths.

Before CUET was introduced in 2022 for university admissions, a student's fate was decided by years of board exam performance, which was visible and contestable. The government's rationale for the shift was to create a level playing field due to varying grading across boards. However, the National Progressive Schools Conference had objected that disparities could have been addressed by designing a rationalisation structure instead.