Board exam marks will be a main component of the proposed single entrance exam for admission to top engineering institutes in the country. A look at what's on offer for the students.
Sleepless nights spent over juggling between cracking multiple entrance examinations and preparing for the board examinations for Class XII is likely to be a thing of the past. Getting to the top engineering institutes in the country will be determined by one examination — JEE.
Beginning next year, a single examination for admission to engineering programmes in the IITs, NITs and IIITs and by any other institution in the States wanting to be part of it will be held and referred to as the ‘Joint Entrance Examination' (JEE).
According to MHRD sources, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has in principle agreed to the new pattern that was arrived at by the Ramasami Committee and experts from ISI Kolkata.
The MHRD concept paper says new JEE will be held at least twice a year to enable students make more than one attempt. The first JEE will be held in April 2013 and the second in November/December 2013.
With the new JEE, for the first time, the marks obtained in the Board examinations will be considered for engineering admission. The percentile rank, not the absolute marks, of a student in the science stream in the Board that he or she appears in, will be the marks for the Board evaluation component. The rank should be given up to nine decimal places to enable tie-breaks, according to the concept paper.
The formula to be used for the percentile rank is (cl+0.5 fi)/N x 100, where cl is the count of all scores less than the score of interest, fi is the frequency of the score of interest (the number of students with the same score) and N is the number of examines in the sample.
JEE will consist of two papers — main and advance — each of 3-hour duration. The main paper, to be held in the morning, will test the foundational understanding of students in physics, chemistry and mathematics in school. The question paper will be designed not only by domain experts but also involve psychometry experts. The advance paper in the afternoon will have the same syllabus as the main paper with questions testing the problem formulation as well as problem-solving skills and incisive thinking.
A CFTI (Centrally-Funded Technical Institutions which includes IITs, NITs and IIITs) rank will be provided to each candidate. The rank will be based on the weightages of board marks - 40 per cent, main test - 30 per cent and advance test - 30 per cent. Tie-breaks will be handled in the order of board percentile rank, main test marks, advance test marks, and marks in the subject with the lowest, second lowest and third lowest, average marks of the advance test.
The JEE result will specifically mention the students' performance in the three components. For final admissions, the CFTIs will have online counselling through a single window system based on the rank.
“The new pattern is yet to be finalised. The institutes have to review the examination model and get back within a month's time. The final decision will be made next month,” says IIT-Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi.
A JEE Apex Board, Academic Group, Delivery Group and Interface Group will be in place by the end of this month.
Students will have to submit separate application forms, one for the JEE and another for admissions to the institutes that will use the examination scores. It would be open to States and engineering institutes to use the JEE results and to adopt the same pattern of admission, giving appropriate weightage for State Board results.
While I agree JEE was always the toughest entrance examination in the
world for engineering , SAT is what is used for entering into MIT ,
Harvard and all other big names . These are aptitude tests and I feel
this gives the students an equal platform . While CBSE students may
crib that the state board students have a free ride , the state board
students can also say that the JEE question paper is veered towards
the CBSE syllabus . So that way you are shutting out a large chunk of
potential IIT ians . So Sibal's intention is good . But taking board
marks is totally wrong . He should only be going for a national level
aptitude test ..Like the CAT . May be even adopt SAT . To conduct an
exam like the GMAT or the SAT or the GRE needs specialised research
which neither the IIT's nor the IIM's have . The CAT exams from 1994
to 2006 which I followed as a trainer had varying levels of difficulty
. Meaning the cut offs for 98 percentile varied . so standardized test
administration is tough
the quality of study is decreasing and now this concept will futhure
decrease the quality of education
For calculating percentile how various optional subjects be equated
with each other? is it genuine?
How the percentile can be calculated for students studied from foreign
countries?
How percentile can be calculated for the candidates of Diploma in
Engineering?
How many subjects will be taken for percentile calculation ? ( for
Diploma holders)
Is it genuine to equate Diploma holders with +2 students and with
their percentile?
AIEEE is sub-standard, to say the least. I hope the question papers
will be set by the IIT Council.
All Sibal wants to is to destroy IITs, take bribe from foreign universities and setup shops in India.
This decision has not precisely delineated all the aspects of countering Coaching Industry. Coaching Industry will never loose its shine until Govt modifies School Education System. In a country , where there is no Common Education System and syllabus , additionally it is well known to all that State Boards marking schemes are quite strict and its too tough to get above 80-85% marks in Board Exams. While this is quite easier to score in CBSE or ICSE or other such Boards. There must be some concession points to consider this issue so that any potential candidates from any state could not be missed out in getting admission to this prestigious institute. 40% Weight-age seems higher , this must be below 25% . This scheme will not be a just decision to state Board students.
Literally coaching classes for preparing IIT-JEE spoiled our young student (future generation) by keeping them outside from school system. In school rigerous study is done, derivation is being made, in contrast in preparing IIT-JEE one uses to find out best answer out of four. Many IIT Professor claimed that students from coaching classes are not sound in derivation. I think, this move is a balanced move where both things are incarporated.
@Harshit "The formula to be used for the percentile rank is (cl+0.5 fi)/N x 100" where fi is the frequency of the score of interest (the number of students with the same score) ok tell me how the students from tough boards are going to cope with this?
Dear friends,
Please read the 5th paragraph of the news carefully. "...... The
percentile rank, not the absolute marks, of a student in the science
stream in the Board that he or she appears in, will be the marks for
the Board evaluation component. The rank should be given up to nine
decimal places to enable tie-breaks, according to the concept paper."
The standard of state boards will be neutralised to a considerable
extent because the rank is being considered. BITS, Pilani used to do
this till a few years ago. The new system will discourage those
getting entry into IITs not because of their talent but because they
undergo artificial polishing in so-called 'coaching factories' spread
all over the country. They are mechanically prepared for the entrance
exam. These students find it extremely difficult to cope up with their
studies after getting into the IITs. This problem has already become
severe and one of the causes for so many suicides that have taken
place in recent times.
The process will save the money of the students towards different exams so that every student will have a chance to get into the iits with only one exam.
The new move to include Board performance reminds me of one funny
quote : " Operation successful but the patient died". The basis of the
forming a new entrance methodology was to reduce the pressure on
Engineering Aspirants and give them practical chances to apply for
various universities. But the inclusion of boards percentage and
separate application filing for the desired universities will only
increase the unwanted load on the students. First , now there will be
an additional pressure on the student to get high percentage on boards
to gain an edge on the examination. The compulsion to perform in three
exams will increase the stress on the aspirants. There are plenty
examples of students and scientists who have not done well in schools
but proved to be the brightest in their respective careers. Also the
poor performance in one exam should not limit opportunities of doing
better next stage of education.Secondly, there is already wide gap in
the marking system of different boards
There are zero nobel prizes won by IITians. Yet 10 Indians have received the nobel prize. This itself shows JEE is not a great measure of a persons caliber. Answering 20 questions when you are 16 doesn't make you anything special. The only reason IIT brand is being talked about is because of artificially keeping the seats low with a population of 1.2 billion.
If IIT is such a great institution how come they havent figured out they have to increase the number of seats and use a different system of measurement for entry.
This move is welcome when you consider including Board exam results so that students take it seriously. But at the same time, we need to address the below concern:
1)Syllabus and evaluation criteria for Board education differs greatly among the States as well as CBSE/ICSE boards. This would create an unhealthy trend of students chosing the easier board just to score high.We need to implement common syllabus across all boards .
@Dheeraj - If you read carefully, they are going to give a score based
on the percentile and not the percent. Hence there will be no problem
for students from tough boards.
Of course this is a welcome move by Sibal except for these two factors which require more attention and clarity
1. The vague use of "all institutes that are interested can take up JEE score for admission" it would prove more effective if they can conduct this single JEE exam for ALL the engineering institutes in the country, if all IITS are in it why can't others be a part of it (a no brainer obviously)
2. Difficulty levels of different state board exams are different (to add to that concern there are ICSE and CBSE)... So it is must that a standard should be followed to resolve this matter of concern else it definitely is going to affect at least some students hailing from tough syllabus background! Lets see how they are going to crack this issue (which certainly is as difficult as cracking the JEE exam :)
Mr Srini, The trend of IIT students pursuing non-engineering careers is a fine piece of development. Your ignorance amuses me. A student has a right to choose what domain he wants to work on. Students choosing non-tech careers is no news in the top universities around the world. Kindly go through the career reports of MIT for example which states over 20% of its students choose consulting careers.Diversity in careers is what students crave for.Got any more doubts do ask.
This seems to be an underhand way to reduce the number of students at
IITs from Andhra Pradesh. With coaching or without coaching, IIT-JEE
was always the exam that could select the best out of a large pool of
very good students. The new exam will not be able to do that and
percentile ranks going to the ninth decimal place will now determine
who gets in! The ministry seems to be missing a very obvious point -
you need a tough exam that can select the best out of a large pool of
very good students. A regular exam will not be able to do that.
In calculating the percentile, the toppers of all the boards will get equal weightage, whereas diffrent boards have diffrent level of students and quality of education. I don't agree with the argument given in the concept paper. In fact the students will be selected based on the ratio of number of students instead of quality. Therefore, the new system is not accepatble and need to be modified.
There is rampant corruption in State-Level Boards. Who will prevent the politicians manipulating the system for their sons and daughters.
This is a good move from the academicians. Toughest exams are not the sole criteria to select the tough students. And cracking JEE is not the final goal of life. There are many tests which one has to pass to move ahead and leave an indelible mark over the sands of time. It is very essential to eliminate the trauma which a student has to undergo while giving the engineering entrance examinations in the present scheme. Also, it is crucially important to bring a component of board exams for entry into the engineering institutes. A major reform is very essential and this new format is a good move in that direction, though it should be subject to changes from time to time.
India is a brought together federation, rather than a coming together federation. As such, it is natural that there is a lot of competition between various states. What the new JEE will lead to is a deterioration in the standards of school education and board exams. A rather more logical form of normalization of marks would be the one the Government of Kerala has implemented for engineering, which equates the average marks on both boards, and then uses the deviation to normalize
One more anomaly here is, any form of normalizatio would require the entire statistics of the board the student studied in. As a student who grew up abroad, many of us, study in the respective boards of the country we live in, and most of us come back to pursue higher education in India, fro the sake of IITs. Why would a foreign school education board oblige the Indian MHRD by giving the entire statistical data of their examinations? In case relevant statistics for a student are not obtained, what will happen?
Excellent move. Engineering or Research in engineering is not about demonstrating some impulse problem solving skills. One needs disciplined method of study, ability to perform detailed lab work and clear documentation skills. By including the board examination component, several of these desired skills are tested and hence students with consistent performance are given better opportunity. In recent years, there is a trend among IIT graduates to pursue non-engineering oriented careers and some of them even go to the extent of despising technical careers. What good is writing and preparing for JEE, if all that they want to do in their career is sit and manage funds in a bank by going to an IIM immediately after graduating ? They could have very well studied commerce during their bachelors degree. I hope the present move will provide the students with consistent performance and interest in science and engineering a better opportunity. After all we cant have all managers in this country.
Right move but just the marks are not enough to get a candidate. Have some interviews or some other kind of material which supports the personality of the student that he is really fit for engineering! Exams never make a career choice alone
Future generations will see that this is a disastrous move. In his haste to do
"something" during his tenure as HRD minister, Sibal is integrating the upper-level
exams before integrating the bottom-level state boards. This will inevitably lead to
biases in the selection process as the pattern and marking system varies greatly
amongst states. IITs were one thing we Indians were consistently proud of and we
can very well kiss that goodbye, thanks to Mr. Sibal.
Pl. do early
Kabil Sibal's final act in destroying the IIT. The IIT-JEE is reputed to be toughest examination in the world and the IITs themselves being regarded as the most selective in the world. This move will introduce mediocrity into an institution that has always been the Academia elite.
Thank you Sibal
Sibal had screwed up all IITs and NITs which carved a niche in their niche......Please do not mess up with IIM's please ......hope he will not propose a new rule which directs all the post graduate institutions to consider under grad percentage as criterion!!!!!
Good Move.......Now there will be a value for Board Education
Already we are seeing our alma mater being spoiled by low quality students getting passed every year and making bad impression in the market. Good Going Mr Kapil.
ISEET has some inevitable outcomes. (1) Increase in organised corruption
at school/college level...... (2)Huge number of court cases to bring a
stay on ISEET from parents & students as they will feel cheated due to
copying & paper leaks.....(3)Competition among states to send more of
their students to IIT, for which they will facilitate scoring through
easy exams & lenient checking......(4) Lowering of science & maths
standards of entire INDIA.
this is fuddu concept
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