Close to 14,000 students in Tamil Nadu and Kerala took the annual FIIT-JEE Talent Reward Exam, 2013, on Sunday.
The nationwide examination is for admission into FIITJEE, an institute that runs coaching centres aimed at helping students crack the joint entrance examination (JEE) conducted by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
While M. Suparna, a class VI student who took the examination, said she wanted to crack the JEE, friends Gayathri S. and Mruthula R.M., class XI students, said they had been writing the examination since class IX, primarily to see how they fared in the ranking.
Kevin Samuel, a class VIII student at a matriculation school, said he appeared for the test simply for exposure. This year, the comprehension-based questions were a new addition, said Gayathri.
The Hindu Education Plus was the media partner for the examination.
R. Rajan, student mentor, FIITJEE, said based on their performance, students are given fee waivers and scholarships between 10 and 100 per cent, among other incentives. The number of students appearing for the examination, he said, was on the rise.
The exam for students in classes V-XI was held in two sessions. While students in classes V-VIII wrote only the morning paper, those in classes IX- XI wrote the morning and afternoon papers.
Rajan said admissions to the institute next year would be based on the talent examination, apart from the regular admission tests. “The advantage of writing this examination is the rank potential index,” he said.
G.V.S.R.K.V. Prasad, centre coordinator, Adyar, said the ranking would help asses a student’s potential ranking in the JEE (advanced), if the difficulty level of the paper stayed the same and the performance of the student remained consistent.
According to K. Vasudevan, assistant general manager, admissions, FIITJEE, the examination was held across 240 centres in the country, including 22 in Tamil Nadu with 12 centres spread across Chennai, Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur.
The papers tested students on IQ, apart from their knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics. There was also negative marking.
The results will be announced on October 31 for class X, on November 8 for class VIII, November 9 for class XI, November 11 for class IX, and on November 13 for classes V, VI and VII.
