If you have just passed 12th class and confused whether to take honours or pass, here is a brief comparison for your benefit.

Your marks in 12th will define which college you are eligible to join and whether you are eligible to join in pass or in honours. There is a formula to calculate the score of a student based on his or her 12th final exam marks. Based on this formula anyone can calculate his or her score. The colleges also calculate this score of each aspirant and then rank them as per the score. Top ranking aspirants are offered honours course which has limited seats. Once honours course seats are full, the students who rank below has no option but to accept pass course seat. There is also a limit to the pass course seat in a college and once the seats are all full the students who do not rank well enough to get into one college has to try in another college. The process is time consuming and may take several days and weeks to complete.

An honours student gets to study the subjects in greater depth and it is expected that he or she will be pursuing higher studies such as masters. However the advantage of an honours degree is slowly dwindling with time. At present an honours student can join the regular Master of Commerce program of North Bengal University and other universities. A pass course student does not have this privilege. However a pass course student can also join the masters degree through a distance and continued learning programs of universities such as NSOU and IGNOU. Sometimes you may need to join a short term bridge course to pursue the masters degree. If you decide to pursue professional courses such as CA, CMA, CS or MBA, honours degree does not give you any advantage.

So which course should you be following? Pass course or Honours? It will depend on your 12th result and future plan. If you wish to pursue academics such as teaching or research, honours is what you should be pursuing. If your plan is to go for professional courses after graduation, honours still has advantage for you as the syllabus prepares you better for a professional course. However some students prefer to take pass course in graduation which has easier load and spend the saved time on pursuing foundation part of a professional course such as CA. Lastly if you wish to finish study after graduation and go for the job market, pursue pass course. In case you change your mind and wish to study further, you always have the scope of joining some bridge course.