Questions such as whether JEE Main and JEE Advanced (formerly IIT JEE) should be merged or not, should board marks be continued to be added to JEE Main marks for ranking or not, were asked by the exam conducting bodies, students, and education experts in India. After a few successful years of the two-tier Joint Entrance Examination, the engineering entrance exam is again going to witness major changes.
On 5th November 2015, the CEP constituted by IIT Council submitted its report on Joint Entrance Examination. This report highlights three key recommendations. The report is published verbatim as issued by the Press Information Bureau.
***Report begins***
The Committee of Eminent Persons (CEP) constituted by the IIT Council under the Chairmanship of Prof Ashok Misra submitted its report to the Government of India on 5th November 2015. The Committee made the following recommendations:
Major changes in the structure of JEE shall be effected from 2017 onwards:
A National Testing Service shall be set up by early 2016, mandated to conduct an Aptitude Test, which should test the scientific aptitude and innovative thinking ability. The Aptitude test may be offered 2 or more times in a year and would be an online test. The testing shall test the scientific thinking and cannot be gamed through coaching.
- Based on this performance, about 4 lakh candidates shall be short-listedfor taking the JEE.
- The JEE itself will be on the lines of the current JEE (Advanced) and designed to test the knowledge in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics; and will be conducted by the IITs.
- From this, ranks will be issued to 40,000+ students who can seek admission in IITs and NITs based on a common counselling.
- The IITs be requested to set up a system for developing mock JEE examinations which will help students prepare for the JEE significantly and wean them away from the coaching industry. The possibility of using the MOOCS platform can also be explored.
- MHRD may take measures for the improvement of school education and the method of examination of the Boards, so that students with the Science aptitude are well prepared in the concepts by the time they reach 12th grade, without dependence on coaching institutions.
Till such time, that is for 2016 and 2017, the practice of two tier JEE examination shall be continued.
- The top 200,000 students from JEE (Main) shall be allowed to appear in JEE (Advanced).
- More than 40,000 ranks will be issued in JEE (Advanced) for developing a better system for selection of candidates.
- Joint counselling for IITs and NITs shall be continued as was done last year.
Board marks shall not to be counted for giving rankings this year for NITs, CFTIs etc.
The Government has decided to place the recommendations of the Report in the public domain for widespread consultation with the stakeholders.
Since this process would take some time, it was decided that the JEE 2016 shall be conducted in the same manner as 2015, with an enhanced intake from 1.5 lakh to two lakh into the JEE (Advanced) stage. The weightage given to Board marks in JEE (Main) would continue for the year 2016.
***Report ends***
A breakdown of the report: Let us analyse what this report effectively means for the engineering candidates.
First of all, it is clear that JEE Main 2016 and JEE Advanced 2016 will be conducted, same as last year.
The following points should be noted regarding Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main & Advanced 2016.
- JEE Main 2016 and JEE Advanced 2016 will be conducted on the same lines as held last year (2015).
- The only change is that number of students who will qualify for JEE Advanced would be 2 lakh instead of 1.5 lakh.
- To determine All India Ranks (AIR) in JEE Main 2016, weightage will be given to board marks.
- Top 2,00,000 candidates of JEE Main will appear for JEE Advanced. Out of them, 40,000 ranks will be announced by IITs for JEE Advanced. A joint counselling will be held for NITs, CFTIs, IITs like last year.
In the coming years, a new engineering entrance exam will replace the two tier JEE.
Key points about the new engineering entrance exam(s) are recommended like this.
- An aptitude test will be conducted two or more times in a year to test scientific aptitude and innovative thinking ability. The exam shall be so designed that it cannot be gamed through coaching, meaning coaching centres shall become obsolete by the introduction of such a test (as said by the report).
- Based on the performance in this aptitude test, 4,00,000 candidates will be shortlisted for JEE.
- JEE (in coming years) will be similar to the current JEE Advanced. This JEE will have test on Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and will be conducted by the IITs.
- JEE result and ranks will be announced and 40,000+ students can get admission in IITs and NITs based on common counselling.
Candidates may please note that this is only a recommendation by the CEP of IITs. Final decision on whether or not such a system would be implemented will be decided by all the exam conducting bodies.
You can share your opinion at the Discussion Forum.
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