The sweltering heat at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati, the cities that hosted the IIT-JEE (Mains) centres in Andhra Pradesh, added to the discomfiture of the IIT aspirants, who faced a tough set of question papers, in the examination that was held on Sunday.
In total about 25,000 students took the examination in the State and many were caught on the wrong foot with the surprise elements, which have been the feature of the IIT-JEE.
Apart from the papers being a tough one, especially the mathematics section, over the last two years, a few of the multiple choice questions had a negative marking of 50 per cent. “If a question was allotted four marks, the negative marking was for two marks. Earlier, it was only 25 per cent,” said Mr. Gurunath of FIITJEE.
This apart, there was negative marking in the ‘match the matrix’ section for the first time, and the comprehension section had more than one option, compared to one option in the past. “This was a big surprise for us and it confused a lot of students. Many were not prepared for it,” said Ch. Srinivas, an IIT aspirant.
In total, about 1.23 lakh students took the exams across the country for admission into IITs and the total marks were increased from 360 to 504, in this year.
The IIT-JEE (mains) is held in two phases from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The students faced the toughest test during the break period from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., as many were unable to go home, as they had come from distant places and had to bear the fury of the Sun God. The exam was held in seven centres in Visakhapatnam.
Parents wore a worried look and many were seen handing over bottles of water mixed with glucose or ORS to their wards.
