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The new IIT exam pattern: Factfile

Rakesh Mathur

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Council on Wednesday struck a compromise with the human resource development ministry on the new pattern of entrance examinations. Here are its salient features:

* There will be two exams, the joint entrance examination (JEE) "main" followed by the JEE "advanced".

* These combine the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and the IIT-JEE, with the "main" exam being equivalent to AIEEE, and "advanced" being equivalent to the IIT-JEE.

* There will be a "suitable" time gap between the two exams, though it was not clarified how much.

* Only top 150,000 candidates (including all categories) from the JEE "main" will be qualified to appear in the JEE "advanced" examination.

* Admission to IITs will be based on the rank in the "advanced" exam.

* However, only students who come in among the top 20 percent scorers in their respective board will be considered eligible for the IITs.

* The "advanced" exam will be held by the IITs, just like the IIT- JEE. It will be conducted by a Joint Admission Board (JAB) and Joint Implementation Committee of the IITs, the same which so far conducted the JEE.

* The JEE "main" will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE), and it will coordinate with the IITs. It will be implemented from 2013.

* Admission to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) will be based on the "main" exam score. A final decision on methodology of admission is pending. A meeting of representatives from the NITs is scheduled for July 4.

* Admission to several deemed universities will also be on the basis of scores in the "main" exam, which earlier took students on basis of AIEEE scores. A minimum percentage criteria will be fixed for these too.

No weightage for marks: IIT Admission Board

Board top 20 percentile eligible,

IITs to conduct JEE Advanced

Faced with stiff opposition from IITs, the IIT Council on Wednesday withdrew its controversial May 28 decision to hold a common entrance exam for all centrally funded technical institutes. The council instead approved a new compromise formula for admission that will come into effect in 2013 and use board exam marks strictly as cut-off, as demanded by IIT senates.

The May 28 announcement introduced a new common entrance exam format for admission to IITs, NITs, IIITs from 2013. This new exam was to have two components — JEE Main (for screening) and JEE Advanced (for the final IIT merit list) with 50 per cent weight age to Class 12 scores at the screening stage. The proposal met with stiff opposition from IITs, with the senates of IIT-Delhi and Kanpur announcing a boycott.

According to Wednesday’s announcement, Class 12 marks will be used only as cut-off to screen students for eligibility for admission to IITs. Aspirants will have to be in the top 20 percentile of their boards to be eligible.

The IIT merit list will be decided by JEE Advanced, a test that will be conducted and managed by the IITs alone, and which will be held on a separate date from JEE Main. JEE Main or the common entrance exam, an objective test, will serve to screen the top 1.5 lakh students who will appear for JEE Advanced.

The new format will mean that a student will have to perform reasonably well in Class 12 to finally make it to an IIT. Going by 2012 board results data, a CBSE student would need at least 78 per cent to be in the top 20 percentile; one of the UP board 65-66 per cent; and one of the Tamil Nadu board around 78 per cent.

A tentative chronology suggests that while board exams will be held in February-March 2013, JEE Main will be scheduled in early April and JEE Advanced — for 1.5 lakh students — in mid-May. Soon after board results are out in mid-June, IITs will tally their JEE Advanced merit list and the percentile position of these students and declare their final results.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told The Indian Express that the council’s decision was a “very important step in the right direction”.

“I thank the council and appreciate the fact that they have taken this decision... There is still a long way to go though, and I am sure all stakeholders will work together,” he said. “While the IIT Council may not have achieved all four objectives through its decision, hopefully the system and stakeholders will work to do so over the next 3-4 years.”

Sibal skipped the council meeting. Prof M N Sharma, chairman of the board of governors of IIT Madras, chaired the meeting.

NITs and IIIT councils will meet next week to decide on their admission format in the light of today’s decision. It is expected that these institutes will admit students on the basis of board marks and JEE Main scores, thus making JEE Advanced strictly an IIT admission test, Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur said.

All-India IIT Faculty Federation president Prof K Narsimhan said he was “quite pleased” with the outcome of the council meeting, which he said was “consistent” with the Joint Admission Board resolution passed last week, and with the concerns of IIT senates and the faculty federation.

Sources in the IIT-Kanpur senate, the first to boycott the May 28 formula, also termed the council decision as a move in the “right direction”, and largely “in line with what senates had said”.

The IIT-Delhi Alumni Association, which is meeting on Thursday, welcomed the decision to give IITs complete control over JEE Advanced, but at the same time expressed reservations about the top 20 percentile formula. The association termed it as “pro-rich” and “detrimental to the interests of students from rural India”.