Students from Andhra Pradesh once again stole the thunder at the JEE this year. Nineteen of the first 50 All India Ranks went to students from that state, including the first three from the IIT-Madras Zone (which comprises all southern states). Only around 40 students from Tamil Nadu could make it to the top 1,000, which is not unusual considering the results of the past couple of years.
In the last 60 years, it was just once — in 2001 — that Chennai produced a JEE topper, while Delhi and Mumbai have done it more than thrice. This year, the Madras zone has nearly 40 students in first 100 ranks and 27 more between 100 and 200.
But most of them are from Hyderabad and other places in Andhra Pradesh. Compared to over 193 students from Hyderabad who have made to the first 1,000, only 41 have made it from Tamil Nadu.
While some ascribe these results to the rigour of coaching classes in other States, others blame the disconnect between the State Board syllabus in Tamil Nadu and the JEE curriculum. Very few students from the State Board stream even attempt JEE here, say the numbers.
“The syllabus of Andhra Pradesh is very similar to JEE. In Tamil Nadu, though the State syllabus covers more topics than CBSE or JEE, the testing patters are entirely based on 'text book sums',” said Balajee Sampath, a trainer.
According to experts, nearly 200 students of the nearly 9,000 who took JEE from Tamil Nadu cleared the test. “This is not really bad. It is more about less number of students from the state attempting the exam, it is not about their performance,” said Mr. Sampath, who emphasised that over 38, 000 students from Andhra Pradesh took the JEE this year in contrast.
“Also there is almost no awareness about IITs in cities such as Coimabtore and Madurai, whereas every district in Andhra Pradesh has a coaching centre,” he added.
While most coaching centres in the city conduct three-hour classes thrice or four times a week, those in other centres have a very different schedule. Shantanu Mohan, a student of IIT-Madras, from Hyderabad , who underwent ‘intensive coaching,' there said, “Classes for us used to start at five in the morning, every day for four five years. The emphasis is on solving as many sums of every kind that you and over time, you learn to solve sums even without thinking.”
The training is not that rigorous in Chennai, which is a good thing, he believes. A IIT-Madras professor added that students who spend six years of coaching in Kota or Andhra Pradesh come are so bogged down by the process that they fail to perform here. “That way, the students from the city, though few in number, manage quite well,” he said.
