The engineering cut-off of top colleges under the Anna University single window counselling are likely to go down to by 0.5. This is because only 1,921 students have secured above 198 out of 200 in Maths, Physics and Chemistry together, compared to 2,684 last year.
Over the last few years, cut-offs have only increased from 0.5 to 3 marks every year. But this year, experts predict the cut-offs will dip even further by 2 marks for middle-rung colleges with a cut-off of over 150, and about 3 marks in lower-rung colleges. This year, only 35 students have secured centum in maths, physics and chemistry. Last year, the number of centums in the three subjects had crossed 100 after a gap of five years, with nearly 120 students getting them. There were 31 such students in 2010 and 44 in 2009. This anticipated dip in cut-offs is also being attributed to the massive decrease in the number of centum in physics – 142 – compared to 646 in 2011. Nearly 1,444 students have scored full marks in Chemistry this year compared to 1,243 last year.
The number of students who secured centum in mathematics in 2011 was 2,720 , while this year, it is 2,656.
The reduction in the number of physics centums might not affect the admission scenario significantly, but will cause ‘internal sliding' say experts. “This means that for students from the same community with the same marks, the college will be determined by their physics marks, after their maths marks are compared,” said Nedunchezhian D., of Technocrats India Collegefinder.
“Everything depends on what the first 1,000 top scorers go for. Many of them will get into IITs, NITs and some would already be admitted to deemed universities,” said Mr. Nedunchezhian.
Anna University published the minimum cut-off mark and the maximum rank allotted in each college in 2011 on its website www.annauniv.edu. Based on their marks, students can find out the colleges where they are likely to get admission.
Educational consultant Jayaprakash A. Gandhi said:“The physics centum issue won't make much of a difference because the number of students scoring above 195 this year and last year is more or less the same.”
