New Delhi:
A single entrance examination will be held from 2013 for admission to the centrally funded engineering institutes. These include the 16 IITs and all the NITs. IIT professors answer your questions on the new IIT entrance test format.
Abhishek: The honourable minister should direct his efforts towards improving the elementary education, better schools & world class teachers. The common entrance test will take again bring the level of the IIT's lower, which already are marred with reservation & quotas. IIT's have stood as premier education imparting institutes for cream of talents across the country. Now the selection would be based also on the marks scored in the state boards. I would like to highlight the fact that all the state boards are not at par in the level of matriculation. By bringing such unwanted reforms the minister has opened the gates to sub-standard talent
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: The Govt. is doing a lot in improving school education. Some of the recent initiatives are: Sarva Shisksha Abhijan for primary schools, and now a similar scheme for secondary education; a country wide scheme of Teacher Eligiblity Tests (TET) to ensure quality of teacher hired for schools; Education is in the concurrent list and so a lot of the changes have to be brought about by State Govts. Many State Govts are indeed increasing their budget on education. Your view that all Boards are not at the same level is just an opinion. When population is large, and there are say two samples, then if we take the first N students from each sample, their capabilities will be similar. This has been shown statistically, provided we agree that no section of the population is more capable based on race or religion or such other criteria (and there is no evidence to show that this is not so).
Resham: It's so unfair to have board marks. Isn't it?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: I think many of the questions regarding the inclusion of Board marks are ill conceived because you are not aware of how Board performance is going to be included for admission. I do agree that in some boards it is easier to score marks, but it is not the marks but the percentile score in the Board which will be converted to 50 marks and taken into consideration. Hence how much marks you get in the Board is not important. What is your rank in the Board is important. This means that the topper of two boards although one may get 99% and the other 85% ,will score the same marks for admission. Hence we are not comparing between the Boards but we are trying to see how good you are in your Board. This only assumes that all Boards have equally intelligent students which is a very fair assumption given the large number of students.
Gautam: Will coaching be of no use now, Sir?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: It is argued that even with the present changes, coaching will not come down. I agree that as long as there is a mismatch between demand and supply coaching will prevail just like that in Civil services, Medicine and Management. However the myth that there is no chance of success unless you go to Kota or Hyderabad will slowly wane when people will find that students around them who attend normal schools are also able to get through the IIT admission system
Abhilaksh: Will students from rural areas not suffer?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: I totally disagree with the logic that students in rural area will be at disadvantage if Board marks are included. The reality shows just the contrary. I was going through the recent results of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It was surprising that even with the best of the schools in Chennai and Kolkata, it is the students from the far away districts who have done better in the rank list. On the contrary, look at the JEE results it is almost everyone from the big cities and places like Kota and Hyderabad. This is because the Board performance does not require extremely specialized coaching like that in JEE and hence students with raw talents and less opportunities performs better with more dedication which gets completely overturned when it comes to JEE. Take the other case of girl students. In almost all the Boards girls are doing better than the boys at the top but when it comes to JEE they are nowhere in the list. This is because in our society still it is rare to send girls to places like Kota and Hyderabad. Thus the present system is much more unfair to rural and girl students. The inclusion of Board marks will bring some level playing ground.
Manish: To Professor Sanghi. I read/saw your interview somewhere in which you said something on the lines that objective type of test cannot get quality students. However, in JEE there are not just normal types of objective questions - there are matrix match types of questions, reasoning types of questions, more than one answer correct types of questions. Are these types of questions not able to get quality students considering the fact that questions are generally not repeated in JEE. Also, JEE became fully objective only from 2006. This means the first batch of passed out students could not come before 2010. But, the complaint that standard of IIT students is going down in not just coming since past 2 years.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: It is the collective realisation of the faculty at IIT Delhi that the quality of student intake has deteriorated after the introduction of the MCQ exam in 2006. We try to innovate within the constraints to have questions where the answers are not just elimination-type. However, a few questions still have answers which can be obtained by elimination. When the exam was subjective-type, some students who had the right answers still got zero because the method was wrong or they got the answer by fluke. In the MCQ-type format, students who make a numerical error despite having the correct reasoning and approach get zero; in a subjective-type exam they would get partial credit.
Ramesh: However, to counteract the coaching centers.. IITs must shuffle the examination pattern every year. because coaching centers run based on the pattern of question papers in the competitive exams.. Therefore, I propose that every year, pattern of the exam should be different and which should be announced with application form which is typically 2-3 months before exam. By this.. students will be prepared to answer any kind of questions and will cover broad syllabus.. and this will also offer challenge to coaching centers when there is not fixed pattern of exam.. (This is my proposal)
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: I agree that pattern of questions should change. But the syllabus cannot change from year to year, and it is not easy to have completely different types of questions every year. But we all try to do this.
Yask Srivastava: I am planning to drop this year as I didn't get a satisfactory rank in IIT-JEE, as I was focused on JEE , I didn't concentrate that much for the boards , I have scored 79% in ISC board , and since the pattern would be changing .. I was wondering if 79% enough , or should I be giving supplementary paper to improve the score, also plz tell me is supplementary marks would be considered . Thanks in advance.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati:You should try and improve your score. All Boards are going to be advised to allow score improvements for those who have given their Boards in 2012. CBSE has already agreed, and there is no reason to believe others will not agree.
Vishnu: 1. I want to know if the advanced paper is subjective 2. will main paper have logical reasoning and english as subjects 3.In andhra pradesh we have board exam in both first and second years will first year marks be counted for 50 percentile in cut off(we didnt have a prior notice of the change before boards!) 4.are languages counted for the 50percentile marks.6.will there be a change in portion(as portion for IIT and AIEEE was a little different).7.when can we get the final verdict about these issues by?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: 1. Advanced Paper: IIT Joint Admission Board will decide. Unlikely to be subjective as everyone will have to sit for it. 2. No English; some logical reasoning may be there; not decided. 3. Whatever the Andhra Board decides is the result. 4. Five subjects (including one language) will be counted. 6. Not clear what is meant by the question. 7. All other details should be available by July end.
Arjun V Anand: Now that they are going to take Board marks into account whether they are going to take the marks of all five subjects in board or only maths ,physics and chemistry.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, one language, and one elective - five subjects.
Krithika: I think it is a step in the right direction. Instead of burdening the children with more and more exams to prepare for, it is high time that we have more uniformity in the admission process. The inclusion of 12th class score is debatable because we have no basis to compare scores from different boards/mediums. It would be good if there was a transparent style of the exam incorporating objective and subjective questions to test the overall understanding of the subject rather than a mere memory based test. This would need the model exam questions to be easily accessible and the syllabus and reference text books being clearly defined so that the dependence on private coaching classes reduces and there is equal opportunity for a student from every part of the country to prepare and appear for the exam.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: There will be changes in the way Boards function and evaluate once these marks become important for admission to technical institutes. Hopefully some of the changes you want will take place.
Gupta: If percentiles among the various boards are the key, would it not lead to another reservation of the various boards in the successful candidates list? Could you please clarify how this will be working out?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: If only the Board marks are used, then yes, it will mean a form of reservation. Let us say the top 5% students are selected. Then the top 5% of each Board will be selected, and the number selected will depend on the size of the Boards. But there is an examination (two in fact) too. Now, the top 10% of the Boards may be shortlisted. But their scores as per the percentile formula will be between 50 and 45 (with 50% weightage) and so the Mains marks is likely to decide who gets in for stage two and who does nto (this is for IIT applicants).
SV: Any changes in the admissions to Bachelors / Integrated MSc programs of IISc and IISER admissions? Will the new Common Admissions test be applicable to them as well? If so, what are the percentage and cut-offs?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: As of now, the common admissions test is not applicable to these Institutes.
Kiran: Why can't the exam format be in lines of GRE/GMAT. As far as i know every IITian and people in HRD ministry would have taken this exam.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: You need to realise that the US universities do not admit you only on the basis of SAT. They also include recommendations, essays (up to 5 in number) and school marks.
Dipen: Can we not have a single entrance exam for each of the faculty all over india?? If you can check, India produces some of the largest numbers of engineers at bachelor levels. As you mentioned, abroad the reco. is only for graduate level or for private universities where the student holds some merit apart from study. Isn't it a time when we have a single test for engineering, single test for medical, single test for psychological studies, single test for legal studies all over india?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: You have to realise that the US universities do not admit you only on the basis of SAT. They also include recommendations, essays (up to 5 in number) and school marks. In a country like India, we need the entrance system to be based on fully objective criteria, otherwise issues like nepotism and external influence will decide the admissions. Also, you need to realise that India is a diverse country with 28 states and 7 union territories. Thus, a single coat fits all paradigm does not fit here.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation:
It's not correct to say that abroad students are selected only on the basis of common entrance exams. There is a weightage for recommendations, there are interviews etc. Besides students have a choice to change the university also which is not available in India.
Rashmi: The main problem with a common JEE appears to be normalization of 12th board marks .As evaluation in different boards across country is not uniform. How can this be tackled????
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: Because we are using percentile ranking, the differences in your Board score will not be very high even if your marks are. So, for example if you get a rank of 3000 in CBSE, you will get a score of about 99.0. If you get a rank of 6000, your score will still be 98.0. So, the ranking scheme bunches the Board results. The top 10% of students in every Board will be within 10 marks of one another, and with 40% weightage, this will mean that they will be within 4 marks of each other.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: We hope Mr Sibal realises this very challenge.
Renuka P: Sir, I am not clear about the Main and Advanced exam. Will the Main exam have questions only on subjects, PCM or English also? As both the exams will be written by all the students, how is the screening done only for IIT? can u pls explain
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: The detailed syllabus for the two exams will be announced later. Ranks for IITs and NITs will be given on the basis of class 12 and the performance in the JEE exam. However, the merit list for both of these will be prepared separately. For details you can see this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPC64em8FHM
Anshu: Sir, Don't you think this new law is against poor? Due to lack of good schools and good facilities, it is highly likely that their school marks will not be as high as of those students who study in elite schools and get the best of facilities. IIT entrance exam for these poor students has been a chance to be at par with all the privileged students. A simple research into marks disparities between schools in India will prove my point. I sincerely hope that poor students' interests are also taken into consideration before any such decision is made.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: One of the reasons for not giving too much weightage to board marks is due to this very factor. IIT Senate have taken this into account while making their recommendations to the MHRD.
Professor Gautam Barua: Director, IIT, Guwahati: The marks you get in your Boards will not be used. It will be your rank. So a guy with 70% in one Board may have rank 100 and the guy with 80% in another Board may have rank 200. Then the guy with 70% will score higher in the percentile ranking scheme.
Amit_irse: In this system , it is good that a whip has been aimed at the mushrooming coaching institutes which charge heavily resulting into lesser chances for economically weaker and rural students who in turn might be talented means depriving those students . In the current system, students are specially trained for cracking the entrance exam and do also but not necessarily have they better EQ. In that case , school education had become dummy which is quite cheap otherwise . So the decision taken by the ministry should not be criticised fully , only its part should be criticised which is not as per high standards set by IITs. In my view, can't be twelth examination be universalized like the entrance exams, then the question of the disparity of different boards shall be eliminated. And see the board exams results only for screening , not for preparation of the merit list and the student who is not able enough to pass the screening , does he deserve to join the IITs. Because after universalization of the board exam conducted by one central body, all the students shall be weighed on the same balance
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: I am not sure if the coaching classes will be marginalised by the new scheme. In fact they have a much wider audience now. Also, a system has emerged where there is a nexus between the schools and the coaching classes. This works in two ways. A) In many schools, the coaching classes have already established their presence in the schools itself - where they teach PCM. B) There are other schools which give 100% attendance to even those students who do not attend school. These practices need to be curbed if the school system has to be strengthened. However, I see these type of practices will increase with the introduction of the new scheme.
Tanmay: It would be more appreciated if MHRD propose reforms on research and development, specifically on postgraduate and PHD programs in IITs. Better research facilities and better scholarships.. Make a PG and PHD admissions very though and give some good benefits to those scholars. E.g. give a good amount of scholarship which will be at par with the employees in private/government firm. Provide other facilities as well. These research scholars should be treated as a cream of the country.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Teaching and research should go hand in hand. We would like more focus on research across institutes including NITs, IIITs and universities by improving research infrastructure, more fellowships and probably greater budgetary allocation for research.
Mansi Goel: The formula for normalization is (percentile-75)/25 which means that one with 75 percentile would get 0 marks while one with 100 percentile would get 100 marks. This means that a student in CBSE with 80-85% marks which normally is equivalent to a percentile of 75 would be ruled out of the race despite his good score in JEE Mains, as he would start with 0 marks in the board component. In this light, is it fair to say that the board examinations have just 50% weightage as they would be almost the sole deciding factor in the screening part.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: The new document does not use the formula you mentioned. It is based on a simple percentile basis. For example: Rank 2 out of 1000 would be a percentile score of 99.8. 50% of this will be added to 50% of the first exam to decide the eligibility merit list for IITs. The merit list for NITs will be based on 40% of percentile score of class 12 plus 30% score in the main test plus 30% in the advanced test.
Rishikesh: Why the change? I mean neither is the stress reduced as students will have to do good in 2 exams instead of one and also don't you think that coaching classes will not coach for boards?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Some of the coaching institutes have already started advertising for coaching for boards in addition to their current coaching practices. So in a way coaching will increase.
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT, Madras: The questions posed by many students clearly show the stress level and the non-natural way of academic life that they lead during the plus two preparations. This has a bearing on the attitude and the enthusiasm with which they come to IIT. Most of them are the people who are burnt out by IIT preparation and just know how to crack JEE or eliminate wrong answers. This is because of alienation from school which takes them away from a normal way of life with extra-curricular activities, teamwork, experimental skills etc. This makes them abnormal adolescent youth devoid of human values and unable of facing the world. The recent trends of increasing failures in the first year IIT courses and the increase in the number of suicides are all reflections of this. Inclusion of Board marks for IITs and other institutions is a small but significant step in the right direction. This is not going to solve all the problems but atleast will initiate a move to go back to schools.
Akshat : Sir dont you think that more IITs should be opened and quota system abolished?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Let us first bring the new IITs to the level of the older ones. Only then should we think of opening more IITs. IITs are funded by the govt and hence have a social responsibility and hence the inclusive policy.
A K Ganguly: A Lot of students are really confused about the mains and advanced test syllabi. Therefore I request the panel to clarify the doubts.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: It is too early to determine the syllabus for main and advanced but don't think there will be significant change from the existing syllabus for AIEEE / JEE
Sanjay: Respected Prof Barua, as you are aware that it is difficult to conduct JEE exams fairly for IITs. how you will ensure board exams are conducted fairly.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: You are too pessimistic. Things are not as bad as you make out to be. There will always be people who will try to cheat, and there will be some who will succeed. But this does not mean that it is a free for all.
Raju: is it sure that there is no CET in 2013
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi:
The current JEE and AIEEE will be merged in 2013 and will be rechristened as JEE
Manas Renjan Sadual : How the counselling will be made for IIT & NIT, How the state quota for NIT will consider.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Separate merit lists will be prepared for IITs and NITs. For details pls see my video on YouTube - "JEE in its new Avtaar" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPC64em8FHM
Javed Asghar: Sir, As professors in various IITs you are well aware that what difference a subjective type paper and an objective type paper has created as far as JEE is concerned. Now if 50 % weightage will be given to board marks where all type of aids can be used esp. in some boards. What would you expect?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Senates are opposed to this and it is to be noted that Senate of an IIT is chaired by the Director. So Directors maybe opposing as you say on their personal basis but as head of institutions their views are part of the Senate recommendations.
Muiz Shah: If this new exam is implemented what will happen to 50% state reservation in NIT's
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: It will not affect state reservation
Mithilesh Pandey: IIT JEE is based on standard 12th. so we cannot ignore 12th. and if 12th marks are considered after deducting practical's marks, then what's wrong in Kapil Sibal plan--common test for IIT, NIT and others
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: For administrative services in the country govt has to establish a separate institution in the name of UPSC. For higher admissions in the universities like PhD etc the UGC has to conduct NET or CSIR exams etc. For admissions in MTech / MS rather than using the marks of BTech or BE there is a separate exam GATE. All these above mentioned exams get students from either universities or other institutions of higher education which are much homogenous in nature as compared to secondary education where number of schools is 100 times the number of universities and variation in the quality of output varies greatly. So you can yourself decide and see whether entrance examination is needed or not.
Ravindra: Let me know why India should not convert all NITs as IITs? We should own more IITs and maximumII seats not meagre 10000 IIT seats for 1.2 billion population !!!
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: We would like to see more IITs in the country. Probably the govt should have started atleast 20 years back.
A K Jain: What will happen if a student fails to appear for test due to medical problem?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: As of now, the new scheme makes it a "make or break exam" held on one single day. Thus, a bad day or a medical problem on that day amounts to a one year loss. MHRD is saying that the first exam will be conducted 2 or 3 times a year. However, there is no such commitment for the second (advanced) exam. Thus, you make sure you do not fall sick on D-day :)
Vivek: Are the marks of English, Physical Education considered besides Physics, Chemistry, and Maths?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Not clear but English may be considered, but not physical education
Namita: This new pattern will lose IIT brand, because unexpected people also can selected with new pattern?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT, Madras: Many of the people who are against the changes are talking of IIT brand name. I am surprised at that. Does the IIT brand name depend only on undergraduate admissions? If so , it is unfortunate. How many of them are aware of the fact that IIT's today are much different from what it was 30 or 40 years back. They train more post-graduates and research students today than under-graduates. IITs need to focus their future on quality of research and innovation to take the nation forward rather than just surviving on the glories of undergraduate pass outs. We are not even within the first 100 universities of the world while universities from China, Singapore, and even Taiwan are ahead of us. Not to speak of those in the United States and Europe. IITs need to create
Monu: Sir ,I think MHRD should normalised the exam centre rather than the whole state exam marks .i have seen from many year that there is a huge cheating during the state exam .student sitting in the exam hall just write whatever they get from outside .outsider(supporter ) has to study not the student i have seen this kind of environment in villages .so those student whose exam centre are in city or where there is no cheating they get less marks than those who are free to do cheating. So I think exam centre should be normalised.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: We share your concern regarding extraneous factors like use of unfair means etc which may further be increased if these board marks are considered in the admission process. We feel the MHRD should prioritise improvement in the school infrastructure and need to bring the syllabi across the boards at par.
Rahul: Sir, don't you think this will make the state board more susceptible to a corrupt one. Different board has different patterns and scoring. Scoring X% in a board can't be compared with other board.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: I think many of the questions regarding the inclusion of Board marks are ill conceived because you are not aware of how Board performance is going to be included for admission. I do agree that in some boards it is easier to score marks, but it is not the marks but the percentile score in the Board which will be converted to 50 marks and taken into consideration. Hence how much marks you get in the Board is not important. What is your rank in the Board is important. This means that the topper of two boards although one may get 99% and the other 85% ,will score the same marks for admission. Hence we are not comparing between the Boards but we are trying to see how good you are in your Board. This only assumes that all Boards have equally intelligent students which is a very fair assumption given the large number of students.
Caleb: The proposed CEE, including the Board Exam marks, is not at all a wise move. I do not understand how the learned Directors of IITs gave their consent to this. I would fervently appeal to the decision makers to maintain status quo atleast for the 2013 batch. Poor Kids!! How much more pressure will they have to bear.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: IIT Senates which consist of faculty members have not given their consent.
Dr. Punnoose George: 1. How will the marks of dozens of different boards with different leniencies / strictness, be compared with CBSE 12th marks ? Some boards only give grades! 2. How will CBSE students (or those from any board ) from suburban and rural areas get comparative marks with CBSE students in cities where the quality of teachers is much better? 3. What if ( in the same board ) a brighter student's paper is corrected by a strict examiner and a weaker student's by a more lenient examiner, leading to higher marks for the later in 12th ( being subjective questions this is quite possible) ?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: To answer your first question - if you are sure that some Boards give only grades that will cause a lot of difficulty in calculating the percentile scores. It is because such difficulties were anticipated, the IIT system wanted a dry run for at least 1 year before announcing the new scheme. Maybe Prof Baruah can answer this. To answer all your questions - most IITs had proposed that the class 12 marks be used as a course filter (eligibility criteria). However, the IIT council thought otherwise.
Chaitanya: What would be the exam pattern of the JEE advanced and main tests? Will the marking scheme be similar to that of the AIEEE or IIT exam?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: At present the govt is proposing multiple objective type questions for both manin as well as advanced. The levels of the examination will be different.
Tripchat: How are you going to equate the Board's marks in the Entrance Test. All the different boards have different syllabs , focus , questions and students. Other than the marks nothing is similar. A percentile based equivalence still cannot normalize the degree of difficulty of two syllabus or a set of questions. First we need is common syllabus , then a common test. And if the logic is that the IIT exams can be passed through rote then the Board Exams are even more susceptable to pattern recoginition .... so the question : what are we trying to achieve ?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: We are also trying to find the answer to the same question. It looks like the decision has been taken in a hurry with some compulsions such that the new scheme had to be launched in 2013. I would like to point out that 5 out of 7 IIT Senates had resolved that any changes should come only from 2014 after a proper analysis of the proposed changes has been carried out.
Mona Vasani: 12th standard has 3 different types like state board,cbse and icse. how will then 12th standard marks be counted. Please explain.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Govt proposes to normalise the board marks by converting absolute percentage of marks into percentile. It will require marks of all the candidates across the boards.
Arindam: Why are you even supporting this? The leniencies and strictness of one board can not be compared with the other. One guy can score 70% in one board while same guy would score 80% in some other board. IIT a test where even a single mark counts why have a factor like 12th pass marks? How will you neutralize factors where PVT institutions will make a competition to grade their students higher than they deserve? India is already spolied, please do not spoil brand IIT for political mileage.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Most IIT faculty is not supporting the proposed changes. They feel that proper analysis of Board marks with respect to their normalisation should be done before any decision is taken. However, the IIT council (chaired by the HRD Minister) thought otherwise and has introduced the changes from 2013 itself.
Abhishek: The honourable minister should direct his efforts towards improving the elementary education, better schools & world class teachers. The common entrance test will take again bring the level of the IIT's lower, which already are marred with reservation & quotas. IIT's have stood as premier education imparting institutes for cream of talents across the country. Now the selection would be based also on the marks scored in the state boards. I would like to highlight the fact that all the state boards are not at par in the level of matriculation. By bringing such unwanted reforms the minister has opened the gates to sub-standard talent
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: The Govt. is doing a lot in improving school education. Some of the recent initiatives are: Sarva Shisksha Abhijan for primary schools, and now a similar scheme for secondary education; a country wide scheme of Teacher Eligiblity Tests (TET) to ensure quality of teacher hired for schools; Education is in the concurrent list and so a lot of the changes have to be brought about by State Govts. Many State Govts are indeed increasing their budget on education. Your view that all Boards are not at the same level is just an opinion. When population is large, and there are say two samples, then if we take the first N students from each sample, their capabilities will be similar. This has been shown statistically, provided we agree that no section of the population is more capable based on race or religion or such other criteria (and there is no evidence to show that this is not so).
Resham: It's so unfair to have board marks. Isn't it?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: I think many of the questions regarding the inclusion of Board marks are ill conceived because you are not aware of how Board performance is going to be included for admission. I do agree that in some boards it is easier to score marks, but it is not the marks but the percentile score in the Board which will be converted to 50 marks and taken into consideration. Hence how much marks you get in the Board is not important. What is your rank in the Board is important. This means that the topper of two boards although one may get 99% and the other 85% ,will score the same marks for admission. Hence we are not comparing between the Boards but we are trying to see how good you are in your Board. This only assumes that all Boards have equally intelligent students which is a very fair assumption given the large number of students.
Gautam: Will coaching be of no use now, Sir?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: It is argued that even with the present changes, coaching will not come down. I agree that as long as there is a mismatch between demand and supply coaching will prevail just like that in Civil services, Medicine and Management. However the myth that there is no chance of success unless you go to Kota or Hyderabad will slowly wane when people will find that students around them who attend normal schools are also able to get through the IIT admission system
Abhilaksh: Will students from rural areas not suffer?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT-Madras: I totally disagree with the logic that students in rural area will be at disadvantage if Board marks are included. The reality shows just the contrary. I was going through the recent results of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It was surprising that even with the best of the schools in Chennai and Kolkata, it is the students from the far away districts who have done better in the rank list. On the contrary, look at the JEE results it is almost everyone from the big cities and places like Kota and Hyderabad. This is because the Board performance does not require extremely specialized coaching like that in JEE and hence students with raw talents and less opportunities performs better with more dedication which gets completely overturned when it comes to JEE. Take the other case of girl students. In almost all the Boards girls are doing better than the boys at the top but when it comes to JEE they are nowhere in the list. This is because in our society still it is rare to send girls to places like Kota and Hyderabad. Thus the present system is much more unfair to rural and girl students. The inclusion of Board marks will bring some level playing ground.
Manish: To Professor Sanghi. I read/saw your interview somewhere in which you said something on the lines that objective type of test cannot get quality students. However, in JEE there are not just normal types of objective questions - there are matrix match types of questions, reasoning types of questions, more than one answer correct types of questions. Are these types of questions not able to get quality students considering the fact that questions are generally not repeated in JEE. Also, JEE became fully objective only from 2006. This means the first batch of passed out students could not come before 2010. But, the complaint that standard of IIT students is going down in not just coming since past 2 years.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: It is the collective realisation of the faculty at IIT Delhi that the quality of student intake has deteriorated after the introduction of the MCQ exam in 2006. We try to innovate within the constraints to have questions where the answers are not just elimination-type. However, a few questions still have answers which can be obtained by elimination. When the exam was subjective-type, some students who had the right answers still got zero because the method was wrong or they got the answer by fluke. In the MCQ-type format, students who make a numerical error despite having the correct reasoning and approach get zero; in a subjective-type exam they would get partial credit.
Ramesh: However, to counteract the coaching centers.. IITs must shuffle the examination pattern every year. because coaching centers run based on the pattern of question papers in the competitive exams.. Therefore, I propose that every year, pattern of the exam should be different and which should be announced with application form which is typically 2-3 months before exam. By this.. students will be prepared to answer any kind of questions and will cover broad syllabus.. and this will also offer challenge to coaching centers when there is not fixed pattern of exam.. (This is my proposal)
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: I agree that pattern of questions should change. But the syllabus cannot change from year to year, and it is not easy to have completely different types of questions every year. But we all try to do this.
Yask Srivastava: I am planning to drop this year as I didn't get a satisfactory rank in IIT-JEE, as I was focused on JEE , I didn't concentrate that much for the boards , I have scored 79% in ISC board , and since the pattern would be changing .. I was wondering if 79% enough , or should I be giving supplementary paper to improve the score, also plz tell me is supplementary marks would be considered . Thanks in advance.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati:You should try and improve your score. All Boards are going to be advised to allow score improvements for those who have given their Boards in 2012. CBSE has already agreed, and there is no reason to believe others will not agree.
Vishnu: 1. I want to know if the advanced paper is subjective 2. will main paper have logical reasoning and english as subjects 3.In andhra pradesh we have board exam in both first and second years will first year marks be counted for 50 percentile in cut off(we didnt have a prior notice of the change before boards!) 4.are languages counted for the 50percentile marks.6.will there be a change in portion(as portion for IIT and AIEEE was a little different).7.when can we get the final verdict about these issues by?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: 1. Advanced Paper: IIT Joint Admission Board will decide. Unlikely to be subjective as everyone will have to sit for it. 2. No English; some logical reasoning may be there; not decided. 3. Whatever the Andhra Board decides is the result. 4. Five subjects (including one language) will be counted. 6. Not clear what is meant by the question. 7. All other details should be available by July end.
Arjun V Anand: Now that they are going to take Board marks into account whether they are going to take the marks of all five subjects in board or only maths ,physics and chemistry.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, one language, and one elective - five subjects.
Krithika: I think it is a step in the right direction. Instead of burdening the children with more and more exams to prepare for, it is high time that we have more uniformity in the admission process. The inclusion of 12th class score is debatable because we have no basis to compare scores from different boards/mediums. It would be good if there was a transparent style of the exam incorporating objective and subjective questions to test the overall understanding of the subject rather than a mere memory based test. This would need the model exam questions to be easily accessible and the syllabus and reference text books being clearly defined so that the dependence on private coaching classes reduces and there is equal opportunity for a student from every part of the country to prepare and appear for the exam.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: There will be changes in the way Boards function and evaluate once these marks become important for admission to technical institutes. Hopefully some of the changes you want will take place.
Gupta: If percentiles among the various boards are the key, would it not lead to another reservation of the various boards in the successful candidates list? Could you please clarify how this will be working out?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: If only the Board marks are used, then yes, it will mean a form of reservation. Let us say the top 5% students are selected. Then the top 5% of each Board will be selected, and the number selected will depend on the size of the Boards. But there is an examination (two in fact) too. Now, the top 10% of the Boards may be shortlisted. But their scores as per the percentile formula will be between 50 and 45 (with 50% weightage) and so the Mains marks is likely to decide who gets in for stage two and who does nto (this is for IIT applicants).
SV: Any changes in the admissions to Bachelors / Integrated MSc programs of IISc and IISER admissions? Will the new Common Admissions test be applicable to them as well? If so, what are the percentage and cut-offs?
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: As of now, the common admissions test is not applicable to these Institutes.
Kiran: Why can't the exam format be in lines of GRE/GMAT. As far as i know every IITian and people in HRD ministry would have taken this exam.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: You need to realise that the US universities do not admit you only on the basis of SAT. They also include recommendations, essays (up to 5 in number) and school marks.
Dipen: Can we not have a single entrance exam for each of the faculty all over india?? If you can check, India produces some of the largest numbers of engineers at bachelor levels. As you mentioned, abroad the reco. is only for graduate level or for private universities where the student holds some merit apart from study. Isn't it a time when we have a single test for engineering, single test for medical, single test for psychological studies, single test for legal studies all over india?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: You have to realise that the US universities do not admit you only on the basis of SAT. They also include recommendations, essays (up to 5 in number) and school marks. In a country like India, we need the entrance system to be based on fully objective criteria, otherwise issues like nepotism and external influence will decide the admissions. Also, you need to realise that India is a diverse country with 28 states and 7 union territories. Thus, a single coat fits all paradigm does not fit here.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation:
It's not correct to say that abroad students are selected only on the basis of common entrance exams. There is a weightage for recommendations, there are interviews etc. Besides students have a choice to change the university also which is not available in India.
Rashmi: The main problem with a common JEE appears to be normalization of 12th board marks .As evaluation in different boards across country is not uniform. How can this be tackled????
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: Because we are using percentile ranking, the differences in your Board score will not be very high even if your marks are. So, for example if you get a rank of 3000 in CBSE, you will get a score of about 99.0. If you get a rank of 6000, your score will still be 98.0. So, the ranking scheme bunches the Board results. The top 10% of students in every Board will be within 10 marks of one another, and with 40% weightage, this will mean that they will be within 4 marks of each other.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: We hope Mr Sibal realises this very challenge.
Renuka P: Sir, I am not clear about the Main and Advanced exam. Will the Main exam have questions only on subjects, PCM or English also? As both the exams will be written by all the students, how is the screening done only for IIT? can u pls explain
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: The detailed syllabus for the two exams will be announced later. Ranks for IITs and NITs will be given on the basis of class 12 and the performance in the JEE exam. However, the merit list for both of these will be prepared separately. For details you can see this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPC64em8FHM
Anshu: Sir, Don't you think this new law is against poor? Due to lack of good schools and good facilities, it is highly likely that their school marks will not be as high as of those students who study in elite schools and get the best of facilities. IIT entrance exam for these poor students has been a chance to be at par with all the privileged students. A simple research into marks disparities between schools in India will prove my point. I sincerely hope that poor students' interests are also taken into consideration before any such decision is made.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: One of the reasons for not giving too much weightage to board marks is due to this very factor. IIT Senate have taken this into account while making their recommendations to the MHRD.
Professor Gautam Barua: Director, IIT, Guwahati: The marks you get in your Boards will not be used. It will be your rank. So a guy with 70% in one Board may have rank 100 and the guy with 80% in another Board may have rank 200. Then the guy with 70% will score higher in the percentile ranking scheme.
Amit_irse: In this system , it is good that a whip has been aimed at the mushrooming coaching institutes which charge heavily resulting into lesser chances for economically weaker and rural students who in turn might be talented means depriving those students . In the current system, students are specially trained for cracking the entrance exam and do also but not necessarily have they better EQ. In that case , school education had become dummy which is quite cheap otherwise . So the decision taken by the ministry should not be criticised fully , only its part should be criticised which is not as per high standards set by IITs. In my view, can't be twelth examination be universalized like the entrance exams, then the question of the disparity of different boards shall be eliminated. And see the board exams results only for screening , not for preparation of the merit list and the student who is not able enough to pass the screening , does he deserve to join the IITs. Because after universalization of the board exam conducted by one central body, all the students shall be weighed on the same balance
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: I am not sure if the coaching classes will be marginalised by the new scheme. In fact they have a much wider audience now. Also, a system has emerged where there is a nexus between the schools and the coaching classes. This works in two ways. A) In many schools, the coaching classes have already established their presence in the schools itself - where they teach PCM. B) There are other schools which give 100% attendance to even those students who do not attend school. These practices need to be curbed if the school system has to be strengthened. However, I see these type of practices will increase with the introduction of the new scheme.
Tanmay: It would be more appreciated if MHRD propose reforms on research and development, specifically on postgraduate and PHD programs in IITs. Better research facilities and better scholarships.. Make a PG and PHD admissions very though and give some good benefits to those scholars. E.g. give a good amount of scholarship which will be at par with the employees in private/government firm. Provide other facilities as well. These research scholars should be treated as a cream of the country.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Teaching and research should go hand in hand. We would like more focus on research across institutes including NITs, IIITs and universities by improving research infrastructure, more fellowships and probably greater budgetary allocation for research.
Mansi Goel: The formula for normalization is (percentile-75)/25 which means that one with 75 percentile would get 0 marks while one with 100 percentile would get 100 marks. This means that a student in CBSE with 80-85% marks which normally is equivalent to a percentile of 75 would be ruled out of the race despite his good score in JEE Mains, as he would start with 0 marks in the board component. In this light, is it fair to say that the board examinations have just 50% weightage as they would be almost the sole deciding factor in the screening part.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: The new document does not use the formula you mentioned. It is based on a simple percentile basis. For example: Rank 2 out of 1000 would be a percentile score of 99.8. 50% of this will be added to 50% of the first exam to decide the eligibility merit list for IITs. The merit list for NITs will be based on 40% of percentile score of class 12 plus 30% score in the main test plus 30% in the advanced test.
Rishikesh: Why the change? I mean neither is the stress reduced as students will have to do good in 2 exams instead of one and also don't you think that coaching classes will not coach for boards?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Some of the coaching institutes have already started advertising for coaching for boards in addition to their current coaching practices. So in a way coaching will increase.
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT, Madras: The questions posed by many students clearly show the stress level and the non-natural way of academic life that they lead during the plus two preparations. This has a bearing on the attitude and the enthusiasm with which they come to IIT. Most of them are the people who are burnt out by IIT preparation and just know how to crack JEE or eliminate wrong answers. This is because of alienation from school which takes them away from a normal way of life with extra-curricular activities, teamwork, experimental skills etc. This makes them abnormal adolescent youth devoid of human values and unable of facing the world. The recent trends of increasing failures in the first year IIT courses and the increase in the number of suicides are all reflections of this. Inclusion of Board marks for IITs and other institutions is a small but significant step in the right direction. This is not going to solve all the problems but atleast will initiate a move to go back to schools.
Akshat : Sir dont you think that more IITs should be opened and quota system abolished?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Let us first bring the new IITs to the level of the older ones. Only then should we think of opening more IITs. IITs are funded by the govt and hence have a social responsibility and hence the inclusive policy.
A K Ganguly: A Lot of students are really confused about the mains and advanced test syllabi. Therefore I request the panel to clarify the doubts.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: It is too early to determine the syllabus for main and advanced but don't think there will be significant change from the existing syllabus for AIEEE / JEE
Sanjay: Respected Prof Barua, as you are aware that it is difficult to conduct JEE exams fairly for IITs. how you will ensure board exams are conducted fairly.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: You are too pessimistic. Things are not as bad as you make out to be. There will always be people who will try to cheat, and there will be some who will succeed. But this does not mean that it is a free for all.
Raju: is it sure that there is no CET in 2013
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi:
The current JEE and AIEEE will be merged in 2013 and will be rechristened as JEE
Manas Renjan Sadual : How the counselling will be made for IIT & NIT, How the state quota for NIT will consider.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Separate merit lists will be prepared for IITs and NITs. For details pls see my video on YouTube - "JEE in its new Avtaar" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPC64em8FHM
Javed Asghar: Sir, As professors in various IITs you are well aware that what difference a subjective type paper and an objective type paper has created as far as JEE is concerned. Now if 50 % weightage will be given to board marks where all type of aids can be used esp. in some boards. What would you expect?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Senates are opposed to this and it is to be noted that Senate of an IIT is chaired by the Director. So Directors maybe opposing as you say on their personal basis but as head of institutions their views are part of the Senate recommendations.
Muiz Shah: If this new exam is implemented what will happen to 50% state reservation in NIT's
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: It will not affect state reservation
Mithilesh Pandey: IIT JEE is based on standard 12th. so we cannot ignore 12th. and if 12th marks are considered after deducting practical's marks, then what's wrong in Kapil Sibal plan--common test for IIT, NIT and others
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: For administrative services in the country govt has to establish a separate institution in the name of UPSC. For higher admissions in the universities like PhD etc the UGC has to conduct NET or CSIR exams etc. For admissions in MTech / MS rather than using the marks of BTech or BE there is a separate exam GATE. All these above mentioned exams get students from either universities or other institutions of higher education which are much homogenous in nature as compared to secondary education where number of schools is 100 times the number of universities and variation in the quality of output varies greatly. So you can yourself decide and see whether entrance examination is needed or not.
Ravindra: Let me know why India should not convert all NITs as IITs? We should own more IITs and maximumII seats not meagre 10000 IIT seats for 1.2 billion population !!!
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: We would like to see more IITs in the country. Probably the govt should have started atleast 20 years back.
A K Jain: What will happen if a student fails to appear for test due to medical problem?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: As of now, the new scheme makes it a "make or break exam" held on one single day. Thus, a bad day or a medical problem on that day amounts to a one year loss. MHRD is saying that the first exam will be conducted 2 or 3 times a year. However, there is no such commitment for the second (advanced) exam. Thus, you make sure you do not fall sick on D-day :)
Vivek: Are the marks of English, Physical Education considered besides Physics, Chemistry, and Maths?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Not clear but English may be considered, but not physical education
Namita: This new pattern will lose IIT brand, because unexpected people also can selected with new pattern?
Professor Sarit Kumar Das, President, Faculty Association, IIT, Madras: Many of the people who are against the changes are talking of IIT brand name. I am surprised at that. Does the IIT brand name depend only on undergraduate admissions? If so , it is unfortunate. How many of them are aware of the fact that IIT's today are much different from what it was 30 or 40 years back. They train more post-graduates and research students today than under-graduates. IITs need to focus their future on quality of research and innovation to take the nation forward rather than just surviving on the glories of undergraduate pass outs. We are not even within the first 100 universities of the world while universities from China, Singapore, and even Taiwan are ahead of us. Not to speak of those in the United States and Europe. IITs need to create
Monu: Sir ,I think MHRD should normalised the exam centre rather than the whole state exam marks .i have seen from many year that there is a huge cheating during the state exam .student sitting in the exam hall just write whatever they get from outside .outsider(supporter ) has to study not the student i have seen this kind of environment in villages .so those student whose exam centre are in city or where there is no cheating they get less marks than those who are free to do cheating. So I think exam centre should be normalised.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: We share your concern regarding extraneous factors like use of unfair means etc which may further be increased if these board marks are considered in the admission process. We feel the MHRD should prioritise improvement in the school infrastructure and need to bring the syllabi across the boards at par.
Rahul: Sir, don't you think this will make the state board more susceptible to a corrupt one. Different board has different patterns and scoring. Scoring X% in a board can't be compared with other board.
Professor Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati: I think many of the questions regarding the inclusion of Board marks are ill conceived because you are not aware of how Board performance is going to be included for admission. I do agree that in some boards it is easier to score marks, but it is not the marks but the percentile score in the Board which will be converted to 50 marks and taken into consideration. Hence how much marks you get in the Board is not important. What is your rank in the Board is important. This means that the topper of two boards although one may get 99% and the other 85% ,will score the same marks for admission. Hence we are not comparing between the Boards but we are trying to see how good you are in your Board. This only assumes that all Boards have equally intelligent students which is a very fair assumption given the large number of students.
Caleb: The proposed CEE, including the Board Exam marks, is not at all a wise move. I do not understand how the learned Directors of IITs gave their consent to this. I would fervently appeal to the decision makers to maintain status quo atleast for the 2013 batch. Poor Kids!! How much more pressure will they have to bear.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: IIT Senates which consist of faculty members have not given their consent.
Dr. Punnoose George: 1. How will the marks of dozens of different boards with different leniencies / strictness, be compared with CBSE 12th marks ? Some boards only give grades! 2. How will CBSE students (or those from any board ) from suburban and rural areas get comparative marks with CBSE students in cities where the quality of teachers is much better? 3. What if ( in the same board ) a brighter student's paper is corrected by a strict examiner and a weaker student's by a more lenient examiner, leading to higher marks for the later in 12th ( being subjective questions this is quite possible) ?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: To answer your first question - if you are sure that some Boards give only grades that will cause a lot of difficulty in calculating the percentile scores. It is because such difficulties were anticipated, the IIT system wanted a dry run for at least 1 year before announcing the new scheme. Maybe Prof Baruah can answer this. To answer all your questions - most IITs had proposed that the class 12 marks be used as a course filter (eligibility criteria). However, the IIT council thought otherwise.
Chaitanya: What would be the exam pattern of the JEE advanced and main tests? Will the marking scheme be similar to that of the AIEEE or IIT exam?
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: At present the govt is proposing multiple objective type questions for both manin as well as advanced. The levels of the examination will be different.
Tripchat: How are you going to equate the Board's marks in the Entrance Test. All the different boards have different syllabs , focus , questions and students. Other than the marks nothing is similar. A percentile based equivalence still cannot normalize the degree of difficulty of two syllabus or a set of questions. First we need is common syllabus , then a common test. And if the logic is that the IIT exams can be passed through rote then the Board Exams are even more susceptable to pattern recoginition .... so the question : what are we trying to achieve ?
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: We are also trying to find the answer to the same question. It looks like the decision has been taken in a hurry with some compulsions such that the new scheme had to be launched in 2013. I would like to point out that 5 out of 7 IIT Senates had resolved that any changes should come only from 2014 after a proper analysis of the proposed changes has been carried out.
Mona Vasani: 12th standard has 3 different types like state board,cbse and icse. how will then 12th standard marks be counted. Please explain.
Professor AK Mittal, Secretary, All India Indian Institute of Technology Faculty Federation: Govt proposes to normalise the board marks by converting absolute percentage of marks into percentile. It will require marks of all the candidates across the boards.
Arindam: Why are you even supporting this? The leniencies and strictness of one board can not be compared with the other. One guy can score 70% in one board while same guy would score 80% in some other board. IIT a test where even a single mark counts why have a factor like 12th pass marks? How will you neutralize factors where PVT institutions will make a competition to grade their students higher than they deserve? India is already spolied, please do not spoil brand IIT for political mileage.
Professor Sanjeev Sanghi, President, Faculty Forum, IIT Delhi: Most IIT faculty is not supporting the proposed changes. They feel that proper analysis of Board marks with respect to their normalisation should be done before any decision is taken. However, the IIT council (chaired by the HRD Minister) thought otherwise and has introduced the changes from 2013 itself.
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