Karnataka caps II PU improvement exam attempts within two years

Bengaluru: In a significant change to the examination system, the Karnataka Education Department has decided that students who fail in the II Pre-University (PU) examination or wish to improve their marks will now be allowed to take the exam only within a two-year period.

The department has issued an order stating that candidates can appear for improvement or repeat examinations only during the year of registration and the following academic year. Within these two years, students will have a maximum of six opportunities to write the exam, considering the three annual exam sessions conducted each year.

The new rule will apply to all categories of candidates including regular students, private candidates, and repeaters. Authorities have clarified that after the two-year limit expires, students will no longer be allowed to attempt the examination again for improvement purposes.

The decision follows the introduction of a three-exam system for SSLC and II PU students from the academic year 2024-25. Although students were earlier allowed multiple attempts to improve their scores, there were no specific restrictions on how long they could continue taking the exams.

Under the previous system, candidates could write improvement exams up to six times without any limit on the number of years. As a result, in some cases even candidates aged 20 to 30 years were appearing for improvement examinations.

Officials said the lack of a time limit created administrative challenges. During the annual registration process, colleges had to upload detailed information about all previous candidates and subjects, which led to technical issues due to the large amount of data being handled.

Another challenge was the repeated printing and distribution of marks cards whenever a candidate improved their result. In such cases, authorities had to issue a new marks card and retrieve the earlier one.

Considering these difficulties and frequent changes in academic curricula, the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board recommended introducing a two-year limit. The government has now approved the proposal and issued the order.