This week, the bridge between metaphor and reality was crossed – YET AGAIN. Students have always been asked for their 100 percent, and Delhi University, one of India's most sought-after universities for undergraduate courses, has literally asked for 100 percent marks in a variety of subjects... even in the year of a pandemic when admissions have been delayed by over three months. 

In what has become a norm, with the 100% cutoffs being touched the very first time in 2011, the trend continued in 2020 after a gap of a few years. As the first-cut offs at DU were released, the Lady Shri Ram College set 100% cut off for three of its undergraduate courses – namely Political Science, Economics and Psychology. 

The question, though is, how is a 100 percent cut-off decided? And what are the factors at play that determine what an ideal and fair cut-off should be for a subject? Just like the price of a commodity is determined by the pull & push of supply, demand and a host market factors, what exactly are the invisible forces at play that go behind determining a cut-off.