The National Testing Agency (NTA) has come out with a two-pronged Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main for 2019. Compared to many other programmes, like the AIEEE in 2002, by CBSE, this scheme seems to be wholesome and a result of more mature planning.
The first factor of appreciation is to have complete sessions of the online test. All candidates will have to answer the same set of questions, as against the system like National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA), where each candidate will be served a different set of questions, randomly selected by a computer.
However, the different sessions will have different sets of questions, which may result in differences in the difficulty levels in the questions. This anomaly is proposed to be tackled by NTA by normalising a procedure which is simple, effective and acceptable to all. It consists of computing the percentiles of candidates in each mark list, leading to preparation of percentile rank lists, all of which will be merged to yield a single percentile rank list. (Ties will be resolved by standard methods).
Two chances
For the JEE 2019, NTA proposes two tests, one in January and the other in April. The intention is, if the first test is missed by a candidate for some reason, the second can be taken, without having to wait for a year. There are some areas where further improvement is possible. NEET 2019 will also be held in May. In practice, every student will prefer attempting both the January and April exams of JEE. Many will also attempt NEET. Thus, the students’ exertion on these entrance tests will be more than before, resulting in less attention to board exams, which may lead to reduced proficiency in the basics of physics, chemistry, math/biology. Further, both JEE and NEET test the candidate’s knowledge in physics and chemistry which are commonly learnt at the same level, by the candidates. Therefore testing in these subjects twice is redundant, causing avoidable strain to students.
A scheme that was adopted in the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations (TNPCEE) that was being held until 2006, could be emulated. Accordingly, a common test pattern for (one set of) JEE and NEET can consist of a paper I on physical sciences (physics + chemistry), a paper II on math and a paper III on biology. Each paper can be of two-hours, all the three scheduled for one day, constituting one ‘session’, online. Admission authorities for JEE and NEET will consider the results of candidates in Papers I and II, or papers I and III, accordingly. This programme is plausible since the same agency, namely, NTA will be conducting both exams.
The writer is former director of Entrance Examinations and Admission, Anna University, Chennai.