IIT JEE (Advanced) exam throws up surprises

Students who appeared for IIT JEE (Advanced) exam on Sunday were surprised to find that paper I had no negative marking. However, many complained that multiple answer multiple choice questions (MAMCQ) were a bit tough.

The results to be declared on June 19 will decide the eligibility for admissions to any of the 16 IITs and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. "

The paper 1 was lengthy and paper 2 had tough questions. But we were surprised to know that there was no negative marking for either the MAMCQs or the integer type questions in paper 1," said Durgesh Mangeshkar, director of IITian's Prashikshan Kendra. "Cut off for the top 6,000 rank may be around 165/360 marksThere were no surprises in the paper except that only 10% weightage was given to Inorganic Chemistry and almost 40% weightage was given to calculus in Maths," he added.

"This time the examination was difficult as compared to previous year's.

The Physics question paper was lengthy whereas Chemistry paper had questions based on uncommon factual questions. Though students have done well, in general they found it difficult. This year the cut off will be less .

"In MAMCQs, if a student marks two right answers and doesn't mark the third one, he will get a zero. The only respite is that there is no negative marking .

From about 35,000 students who took the JEE Mains exam, about 500 from the city had qualified for JEE Advanced. The results will be declared on June 19.

Original source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/IIT-JEE-Advanced-exam-throws-up-surprises/articleshow/35611878.cms

Government may hold single entrance test for all engineering institutes from 2015

In line with the all-India medical entrance test - National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) - the Centre has started preparation for holding a single entrance test for engineering courses from next year, a daily reported on Friday.

The new system however, according to the report, is yet to get a final nod from the human resource development (HRD) ministry and now only the next government is expected to approve it. The decision will be made after consulting stakeholders including the IITs to arrive at a consensus on the issue.

The government believes that a single entrance test would make students focus on one exam instead of many. According to a senior official in the HRD ministry, this new system has been designed keeping in mind that the students will make more effort in preparing instead losing time travelling around the country to sit in many entrance exams. He further said that with the onset of the common entrance test, the most popular Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) or for state level engineering entrance exams will be scrapped.

The idea of single common entrance test for engineering institutes was first proposed in 2012 by then HRD minister Kapil Sibal. He had said candidates aspiring for IIT admission and in other central institutes, such as National Institute of Technology (NIT) and Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), will have to sit for a common entrance test which will also take their higher secondary board results into consideration. However, Sibal's decision to have a common entrance test could not take off because of opposition from IITs.

Currently, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts what is called Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for IITs, NITs, IIITs, other centrally funded technical institutions besides institutions funded by participating state governments.

This year the results for JEE (Mains) that will allow 1.5 lakh students to appear for JEE (Advanced) to get through IITs and Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad is expected on Saturday. Apart from the JEE, several states hold separate entrance tests for admission to institutes run by them and private institution too conduct their entrance exams.

original source : India Today