Mock tests for students taking IIT entrance examination
Tests to be held from second week of
January; students can make changes in application form after
registration
New Delhi: Students taking the first single exam
for entering the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other
engineering colleges in April will get a chance to take part in mock
tests as part of an effort by the government and the IITs to familiarize
admission seekers with the new format.
In another first, students will also be allowed to make
changes in their application form, once in January, after the ongoing
registration process for the exam ends in mid-December.
The mock test will be conducted for almost three months
beginning in the second week of January, said Vineet
Joshi, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE), which is in charge of conducting the joint entrance exam (main,
JEE Main) for all centrally-funded technical schools.
CBSE functions
under the human resource development (HRD) ministry.
“This will clear the doubts in the minds of students and
make them aware of the JEE pattern in its first edition,” he said.
In May, the government decided to allow admission to all
IITs and centrally-funded engineering institutes through a single test
to reduce stress on students who sit for multiple entrance examinations.
The so-called one nation, one test formula was adopted after a
nationwide debate.
For selection to the elite IITs, students who finish
among the top 150,000 in the entrance test will sit for another exam. To
qualify for admission, they will need to finish in the top 20
percentile of their respective school board exams.
Joshi said since students from all school boards will
take the test, they need to have a “look and feel of computer-based
examination in a simulated environment”. There will be more than one
sample test available for aspirants.
According to an official estimate, more than 1.2 million
students are expected to appear for the test. The test will be conducted
both in the pen-and-paper and online formats. There are nearly 25,000
seats available in all centrally-funded engineering schools, including
9,700 at the 15 IITs.
“The mock test will be a great idea. Since JEE (Main)
will be key for entering IITs, it would be of immense help to students
like me. I don’t have any problem with top 20 percentile, but any
mistake with JEE (Main) will be a spoiler. So, it’s better to practice
these mock tests before hand,” said Raghavendra
Dhal, a Lucknow-based student.
Authorities said the registration process for JEE 2013
had already started and they had received feedback from students about
the mistakes they had made in filling the forms online.
“Based on the feedback, we have now decided that sometime
in January, we will open a window for registered candidates to make
suitable correction on their forms in a variety of issues like their
personal details, test-taking city, preference for centre, etc.,” Joshi
said. According to the JEE (Main) website, aspirants who wish to take
the computer-based test can review or re-answer any question at any
point of time during the examination. Last year, IITs made answer sheets
public to bring transparency to the system, Mint reported on 2
May.
Sanjeev
Sanghi, a professor of IIT Delhi, said the IIT system had
stayed robust because of its innovative approach and the debate it
conducts before it takes any decision. “We are always (working) for the
betterment of aspirants.”
