IIT JEE Exam Pattern Changes in 2013
A common aptitude-cum-advanced knowledge test will replace the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (IIT JEE) and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) in 2013. Test scores will have 60 per cent weight in deciding admissions; school board marks will have 40 per cent. Test and board scores will determine admissions to all centrally funded engineering institutions.
The common entrance exam, planned as a SAT-type test, is likely to be held online from 2014, and could be given twice a year, highly placed sources said. The paper test is likely to stay on until the online system stabilizes.
The NIT council has approved the new format. All the IITs have agreed too, and are likely to give their formal approval at a meeting of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) on February 18. The human resource development (HRD) ministry has formed a committee of IIT directors and CBSE officials to work out the modalities before the meeting.
The ministry has been working on a common entrance format for over a year, with the aim of reducing the stress of taking multiple tests for students just out of Class 12, checking the coaching business which promotes learning by rote, and reinforcing the importance of school education.
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal plans to take the proposal to the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) to help build acceptability and consensus for the common entrance test among state governments.
(The common entrance exam will have two elements — simple aptitude testing to assess scholastic levels, and an advanced section which a student can choose to either continue with or skip,) said a source.
(This test will essentially produce only scorecards for each student, and the concerned institute will then decide how it will use the 60 per cent weight — say, an IIT can rely more on scores achieved on the advanced level section than on aptitude. It could be a 30-30 aptitude-advanced knowledge format for IITs, and 40-20 for NITs,) the source said.
(While AIEEE and IIT JEE will go, the JAB and the Central Counselling Board (CCB) will stay to work on these finer points and modalities of admission.)
The JEE currently decides admissions to the 15 IITs; the AIEEE to the 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 4 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs). A host of private engineering and technical institutes in the states also use AIEEE scores. Over 10 lakh students apply for AIEEE and 5 lakh for JEE every year.
