Bengaluru, (DHNS): The Common Entrance Test (CET) 2017 for admission to engineering, technology, science, ayurveda, homoeopathy and other courses began on Tuesday, in the state.

On the first day of the two-day test, candidates wrote the Biology paper in the morning session and Mathematics paper in the afternoon session.

Karnataka Examinations Authority, which conducts the test, said in a press note that the test was conducted in a fair manner. This year, for the first time, the question paper was bilingual, with questions in Kannada and English. Exam centres were also randomised so that no student wrote the paper in their own college. Of the 1,85,418 registered candidates, about 1,41,545 (76.34%) attended the Biology paper and 1,79,027 (96.55%) attended the Mathematics paper. A KEA official said that the 24% absenteeism in the Biology exam was because NEET has been made mandatory for medical and dental seats.

The general consensus among students was that both the 60-mark papers were better than expected.

Ramesh Acharya, a student of Sheshadripuram college found the Biology exam to be easy. “Most of the questions were from syllabus we had in the first year of pre-university. It was quite easy and time was sufficient too,” he said.

Another student, Richard Fernandes also said that the paper was easy. “The questions were straightforward and from the syllabus. There were no errors but it was time-consuming,” he said.

About the Mathematics paper, Akshar Prasad, a BASE student, said that the questions were directly from the first-year and second-year PU textbooks and straightforward.

Students are optimistic about the Physics and Chemistry papers on Wednesday.