I entered the college premises (DD College, Dehradun) at 01:40 PM (sharp). The college staff asked the candidates to throw their pen/pencils which they carry with themselves (they said it would be provided inside the examination hall) and then they asked us to take off our shoes, belts, and even our wallets and keep them anywhere we wish, as they were not allowed in the examination hall. If our belongings were of such a concern, the CLAT conducting University, NUALS, Kochi should have mentioned it in the admit card itself very clearly. It is obvious that the candidates who were coming from out of station would be carrying wallets (if not anything else), so, the instructions should have been given to the concerned colleges about the proper upkeep of the articles. This is such a misbehaviour on the part of both the conducting university and the colleges concerned. It was really ridiculous how the centre asked us to keep the our stuff at any place we wish to, with no responsibility of loss on their part.
Next, the frisking process and biometric attendance were very tiring and slow. The candidates were standing in queue for more than one hour before the exam. After the biometrics, there was another attendance (manually using our left thumb impression and signature on an attendance sheet) in the examination room, that also took another half an hour. When I sat at my assigned seat, as there was no wall clock, I asked the invigilator about the time to which he replied very rudely: “Do you see a watch in my hand?” I asked “Sir, you might be carrying the cell phone?” He said “No,” and walked away. As per my understanding it was past 03:00 PM when I started the practice test.
After this, when I logged in for the real test (unaware of time) all the questions and options were blank/boxes as if they were encrypted and the timer had started at that very time. I asked the invigilator about it, and he said that it was a server glitch and would be resolved in some time. I asked on how to compensate for the wasted time to which he said that extra time would be given at the end. After some time, the invigilator asked us to exit the session and made us start the session again and then I logged in for the second time. This process took almost 10 minutes. After login, I realised that I am 10 minutes down. Then, I continued my exam.
During the period of examination, the invigilation staff was very unsupportive and irritating. In the lab, there were around 6-8 people. Two of them standing right next to me were constantly chit-chatting, I requested them to stop talking several times. Then, there was an AC which was not working, and fans (due to repeated electricity cuts) were not working either plus there was no facility for drinking water. Now, when the exam time was over and I was to leave the room, I asked invigilator to sign my admit card. He said there was no such instruction to sign the admit card. I showed him the Instruction No.2 on my Admit Card to which he said it is not mandatory.
After asking him repeatedly, he signed it rudely. On coming out of the hall, I searched for my pair of shoes, wallet and belt (we had to throw away our stationery). Luckily, I found my wallet and belt but most of the candidates lost their wallets, belts too. There was a huge heap of shoes right next to the college’s main gate and I had to find ‘my’ shoes in that. I searched for almost 20 minutes but didn’t find them, I waited and let all the candidates find their shoes so that I could finally find mine but it was all in vain.
Meanwhile, there was a fight between the college administration and the guardians who came to pick up their wards regarding the loss of time. At the end when the college got empty, I had to leave barefoot. It was the worst experience of writing an exam and then going back home barefoot. I think, after paying a ₹4000 application fee, nobody expects this level of inefficiency. This is a huge misconduct on the part of the CLAT committee of NUALS, Kochi as well as the administrative staff of the college which conducted the exam.