Entrance Exams

An entrance exam 2024 is a gateway for aspirants looking for college admission. Entrance Exams in India are conducted by educational board and institutes to select eligible and deserving candidates for college admission. At present, innumerable entrance exams are conducted to fill engineering, management, law, medical, journalism etc. seats. The exams are held at national, state, and university level and the scope of these varies from course to course and college to college. You can check details and list of all the entrance exams in India from this page.

List of Entrance Exams in India

• Agricultural Entrance Exams
• Architecture Entrance Exam
• Commerce Entrance Exams
• Common Entrance Exams
• Computer Application Entrance Exams
• Design Entrance Exams
• Education Entrance Exams
• Engineering Entrance Exams
• Hotel Management Entrance Exams
• Law Entrance Exams
• MBA Entrance Exams
• Media & Journalism Entrance Exams
• Medical Entrance Exams
• Nursing Entrance Exams
• Pharmacy Entrance Exams
• Science Entrance Exams
• Diploma & Polytechnic
• ITI Admission
• Lateral Entry

Did you know? – The trend of entrance exam in India was started by the University of Calcutta, in 1857. The University conducted the exam to determine the eligibility of the candidates for admission and only 1 in 4 students passed the exam.

Type of Entrance Exams in India

Chiefly, entrance exams can be divided into 3 broad categories, which are:

• National Level Entrance Exams / All India Level Entrance Exams.
• State Level Entrance Exams.
• University / Institute Level Entrance Exam.

National Level Entrance Exams / All India Level Entrance Exams – These are those examination, which are conducted throughout the nation and candidates from all over India can apply for it. The score of the exam is considered by colleges / universities / institute throughout the nation. Some of such exams with the name of the conducting body are as follows:

Exam Name	Conducting Body
NEET	NTA
JEE Main	NTA
CAT	IIMs
CLAT	NLUs
GATE	IITs

National Testing Agency (NTA) – The Govt. of India set up NTA in the year 2017. The purpose of the Agency is to have a body which is completely dedicated to conducting entrance exams in the nation. Since its inception, NTA has taken over various exams and is expected to hold more exams in future.

State Level Entrance Exams – These are those exams, which are held throughout the state and qualifying candidates only gets admission in the colleges / universities / institutes which are in that state. Usually, for these examination, only domicile of that state can apply. However, eligibility criteria differs for each exam. Some of such exams with the name of the state are as follows:

Exam Name	State
WBJEE	West Bengal
UPSEE	Uttar Pradesh
MHT CET	Maharashtra
Rajasthan JET	Rajasthan
KCET	Karnataka

University / Institute Level Entrance Exam – These exams are also held at all India level. However, the difference is that the score of these exams is usually considered by only one or few colleges / universities / institute for admission. Some of such exams with the name of the conducting body are as follows:

Exam Name	College / University / Institute
VITEEE	Vellore Institute if Technology
BITSAT	BITS Pilani
CUSAT	Cochin University of Science and Technology
XAT	Xavier School of Management (XLRI)
LPU NEST	Lovely Professional University

Mode of Entrance Exam in India

Earlier, the entrance exams were held on pen and paper but as the technology advanced, the mode of examination changed. Few of the following popular modes in which the exams are held are as follows:

Offline Mode – This is the traditional pen and paper format, in which candidates have to write answer on a paper or OMR sheet.

CBT Mode – Compute based test mode is the most popular mode of entrance exams right now. Here, the candidates have to attempt the exam on a computer and mark answers with the help of a mouse. In some of the exams, candidates even get virtual calculate as well.

Online Mode – Even in online mode the candidates take the exam via computer. However, the only difference is that candidates can take the exam form anywhere and are not restricted to go to a particular center. To take these types of exam, candidates just need to have a computer, good internet connection, and a webcam.

Scope of Entrance Exams in India

Due to entrance exams, standards of selection has become possible. Earlier, the selection of candidates way done via various methods. However, now all the candidates are evaluated on the basis of a standardized exam.

Each exam is prepared by a team of expert, who evaluate n number of factors for determining the exam. From release of the notice to determining the centers and making the question to release of the result is carried out by a team of experts.

The purpose of conducting an entrance exam is to judge the candidate’s knowledge, aptitude, mind sharpness, presence of mind and so on. Each entrance test whether state level or national level follow a set of exam pattern to conduct the exam.

Advantages of Entrance Exams

As explained above, entrance exam has standardized the evaluation process. However, other than this, there are following advantages of the exams.

• India has a population of 1.37 billion and there are thousands or lakhs of students applying for each course. It becomes heavily difficult to make a selection of the capable candidates from the crowd. Hence, entrance exams serves as a single platform to evaluate the performance of numerous of candidates.
• Through entrance exam all the candidates get an equal opportunity.
• Candidate’s aptitude can be checked through entrance exams and hence the right candidate can be selected.
• To qualify an entrance exam, candidate needs the right set of attitude, hardworking skills and emotional intelligence. Therefore, entrance exams helps in selecting the candidate who is a performer in all these skills along with matching aptitude standards
• Increases the morale of the shortlisted candidates.
• Entrance exams provides transparency in the selection procedure.

What After Entrance Exams?

After the entrance exam, the candidates are either called for counselling or group discussion and personal interview round. In some cases, qualifying candidates are directly called for the admission as well. However, there is no hard and fast rule. It depends on the conducting body, how it wants to evaluate candidates further.

We hope this article was helpful. If you have any queries or doubts, leave a comment below.