Alerts and Updates for Calcutta University PG Entrance Test (CU PG Admission)

The two-part structure is the thing to read first. Part-A is reserved for the current cohort of Calcutta University graduates and blends undergraduate record with test score in equal halves; Part-B is an open pool judged on the test alone. Tie-breaking runs first on the number of negative marks accumulated in the test, then on the undergraduate subject percentage. Reservation is applied as SC 22 per cent, ST 6 per cent, OBC-A 10 per cent, OBC-B 7 per cent, PWD 5 per cent and EWS 10 per cent.

The academic session itself runs July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, split into an odd semester from July to December and an even semester from January to June. No later PG phase, mop-up or spot round for the 2026-28 cycle was visible on the CU PG admission portal or the university notice index when these pages were read on September 22, 2026; the portal lists programme-wise admission pages without a consolidated phase calendar, so candidates should check the individual department page rather than assume a further round exists.

The commonest mistake with Calcutta University PG admission is treating it as a single merit list. It is not. Sixty per cent of seats sit in Part-A, where the undergraduate record still carries half the weight, and forty per cent sit in Part-B, where it carries none at all. Candidates who assume their honours marks will carry them, or conversely that the test is everything, both misread the sheet they are actually competing on.

Part-A is the reserved pool for the current cohort of Calcutta University undergraduates under the CCF structure, and its merit is computed as half entrance test marks and half undergraduate honours marks up to the fifth semester. Part-B is the open forty per cent, and the brochure states selection there rests solely on entrance test performance. This matters because the same raw test score converts into two quite different ranks. A candidate with a strong fifth-semester aggregate is materially better off competing in Part-A; an applicant from outside the current CU cohort, or someone returning within the five-year eligibility window, has only the test. Read the brochure's part definitions before you read anything about cut-offs, because a cut-off quoted without its part is meaningless.

The test is fifty questions for a hundred marks in sixty minutes, awarding plus two for a correct answer and minus 0.5 for a wrong one. That ratio makes guessing mildly profitable in isolation, which is why the brochure's tie-break rule deserves attention: where two candidates finish level, the first tie-breaker is the number of negative marks incurred, and only then the undergraduate subject percentage. A candidate who reaches a given score by attempting everything loses to a candidate who reaches the same score by attempting fewer and missing fewer. The practical implication is to treat the last few uncertain attempts as costly twice over, once in raw marks and once again in the ordering.

Eligibility was widened this cycle so that applicants may apply within five years of graduation rather than one, which was reported when the mandatory entrance test was announced in May 2026. The effect on the Part-B pool is direct: it now admits several graduating cohorts at once rather than one, so the open forty per cent is a deeper field than it was. Anyone planning around a previous year's Part-B closing rank should treat that number as unreliable. The brochure also lists disqualifying conditions that catch people out, including holding a previous postgraduate degree, carrying a failed semester, and entering from a multidisciplinary rather than a single-major or honours background.

The brochure describes a multi-round counselling process driven by a preference order, and states that once an option is matched with the preferred course, all lower preferences are automatically closed while higher preferences stay live for later rounds. Filling preferences is therefore a one-way ratchet: a match at position four kills five onwards permanently but leaves one to three available if seats free up. The correct way to fill the list is strictly in order of genuine preference, never in order of perceived safety, because listing a fallback above a real first choice locks the fallback in and destroys the upgrade path that the rule is designed to preserve.

Selection lists are published before final undergraduate results are known, and admission granted on that basis is provisional. Reporting on the cycle states that clearing every semester remains mandatory for postgraduate enrolment and that a candidate who fails the sixth semester loses eligibility. The brochure separately sets minimum thresholds for the three-year degree route, including a 4.0 CGPA, a minimum of 120 credits and at least half the credits drawn from core courses. Anyone sitting the entrance test with a pending backlog should treat that backlog, not the test, as the binding constraint on the admission, and should not defer a supplementary attempt.