IIT entrance–why I like the new system

I actually like the new system introduced for IIT JEE entrance. Under the new system 50% of weight age would be given to your class XI^th and XII^th exams, and approx. 50000 (PTI, 2012) top students based on the above criteria would be eligible to appear for the final entrance exam. Although, a lot is being made out how this is unfair for the poor students of different boards and those who cannot go to the various coaching classes, but I guess this is mass hysteria. Here are the reasons why I like this system

The IIT entrance exams are different

Let us understand this before we proceed. The IIT entrance exams are very different from any other entrance exam of this country. Most parents and students are under the impression that like the CAT and other entrance exams, the IIT entrance is tough because there are hundreds of students stuck at every percentage point of the exam e.g. at 91%, 90% etc. That is not the case, period. In an IIT entrance exam, you might score 90% marks and yet not get an admission while someone may score 15% average for all four subjects and get an admission. Yes, you read that right. Simply securing the highest percentage does not guarantee an admission. The IIT admission test does not measure how many questions you answered, it measures which questions you attempted and which you did not. Therefore, the toughest 10% give you a better chance of getting an admission than the easier 90% of the questions. I do not know how many coaching classes explain this to the parents at the time of admission to their classes, but I am willing to gamble only a few and far between. Otherwise, we would not have seen the kind of craze for IIT coaching classes the way we see today. This is also the reason why most successful candidates are also the class and school toppers. The new system attacks only those students who cram up formulae’s and equations for the exams. I fail to see how the new system would affect a serious student.

Internally IIT does not take objective semester exams

This is the other point, which I assume most smart people know about. IIT’s do not conduct objective internal exams. Therefore, although you might get an admission by topping an objective exam, you do have to fill answer sheets to pass out of IIT’s. Even after thinking hard and long I do not get it. IIT’s were one of the first institutes of India to introduce the objective entrance exams, I am told there is a lot of scientific reasons behind this and I am not going to get into these. This still begs the question, why are the semester and final exams of IIT not objective? Microsoft certification exams are objective. I know many other exams that are objective. Even if we factor in the differences between IIT semester exams and other engineering semester exams, I am of the impression that students who are better prepared for a written exam are also the ones who top these exams. Therefore, this is my biggest question to all those who favor a single objective entrance exam for IIT. Why don’t you have more of these at semester levels?

Not all exam boards are the same

Another reason given against the new system is that not all state and central boards are the same. I have heard horror stories of some boards where the arts teachers correct the final board math's papers and vice versa. However, I don’t think the current JEE exams of IIT address this issue adequately. Although, a common entrance test might eliminate the differences between various boards, but do not forget that you do have to clear your board exams for securing admission even in the current system. Therefore, if you are a brilliant student who did not pass the math's exam because the arts teacher saw that your answers were different from the answer key, you won’t get an admission, even in the current system. If there is a conspiracy in your state board to deny career opportunities to students by randomly failing them in exams then you should take this issue with the board management, or at least get your papers re-evaluated. However, be advised, in my personal experience teachers do have a reason to fail students most of the time.

The other more compelling argument is that not all state boards give marks the same way. So, a state board might actually give you less marks for the same quality of answers. I don’t know if this is a cause or a symptom, but I propose a simple test. If board A gives less marks to students than say the CBSE then logically, we should see more students of board A in IIT’s, right? Some might argue that’s because the IIT papers are set based on CBSE syllabus. In my personal experience, all state boards cover all topics of the CBSE syllabus, but even if that argument was true then we would see a proliferation of board A students in say the post graduate courses such as MBA, where the entrance exams are still common. Statistically speaking, there is no difference between the quality of syllabus of state and central board students. It is always depends on the students and the teachers. The same applies to cricket teams, hockey teams etc.

It encourages coaching classes?

Duh!??? If you ever came across a coaching class counselor who asked you to pay as much attention to school exams as the IIT JEE exams then give them a big hug and a box of sweets and declare that they were right all along. If you can post me even a few examples of such counselors then I will wipe tears of joy from my eyes. I have never come across any counselor who asked me to pay equal attention to school and board exams. Even now, I can imagine the marketing departments of these classes changing their pitch and say something like “you still need to score well in the objective exams”, and avoiding any mention of board exams. Fifteen years ago I had to attend separate classes for board exams. I have stated before how important it is even under the current system to be able to fill answer sheets and not just fill boxes or circles, and the USP of the entrance exam coaching classes has been their ability to prepare you for these types of papers. These classes might make a huge leap of covering both types of papers and that would benefit the students. However, I don’t think this would be practical and looking at the time and costs associated with written exams, I feel these would be still be the domains of schools, teachers and yes the coaching classes of these teachers, paid or otherwise.

No, it does not harm the student’s interest

Chetan Bhagat made an argument that how much a student scored in practical's depended a lot on how close he or she was to the teacher (Dhawan, 2012). Considering that most schools would find it lucky if even one of their students make it to IIT, I cannot imagine a scenario where a teacher chooses to grade an ugly student less in their practical exams, even if they were school toppers in theory exams. Mostly schools go out of their way to get top practical marks for their theory students and under the new system they have an important reason to do so. I have also read that Chetan tweets the new system would not be less stressful than before. I think the exams would always be stressful even if the entrance exam requires you to sing a song or dance to a tune, when your career is at stake. Neither the board exams nor the entrance exams are going anywhere and are here to stay. The biggest USP of this new system is that it brings these divergent elements together to form a common denominator. Teachers and coaching classes will not have to guess which student is going to make it to IIT and who is not. The message would be the same for all students, pay attention to the theory and filling circles. That would be the biggest reward of this new system.

Bibliography

Dhawan, H. (2012, May 30). New IIT exam comes in for all round criticism, alumni may move court over joint eng test. Retrieved June 02, 2012, from The Times of India: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-30/entrance-exams/31899805_1_iit-entrance-somnath-bharti-iit-delhi

PTI. (2012, June 01). IIT Alumni Opposes New Format for Admission. Retrieved June 02, 2012, from http://news.outlookindia.com: http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=764459

One can only ask

I really am out of intelligent answers so let me ask a few questions. Dear Kapil Ji, it was very kind of you to suggest that posts that offend the feelings of a country, community etc. be screened and that’s very kind of you but maybe you can show your sense of civic duty in a different direction, where its needed a bit more.

Lets start with the ones that make every Indian cringe. Why not stop many more commonwealth game scams from occurring. Do you know what hurts the feelings of this Indian the most? It’s the knowing chuckle of a foreigner that says “so you guys tried to host such a big event? and look what a mess you made”. So let me ask you sir, can you please ban all such sporting events in the future? Can you throw your moral indignation at the very leaders of your party who made a complete mess of things and ask them to never do it again?

I guess that’s was just the starters for the full course meal of corruption that we got served last year. 2G Scam unfairly takes limelight but what a scam! With everybody pointing fingers at everybody else we don’t know whom to blame. We have chief ministers crying like babies about political vendetta. We have ministers getting in and out of Jail like Aishwarya Ray’s baby shower. We have your comments that there has not been any actual loss (of all things you are a lawyer, sir) and then realizing that the losses we are talking about is the money made by the winners of the backdoor auctioning of spectrum and not some fictional made up numbers. I was surely banging my head against the wall and wondering aloud “Why had I voted for Congress? Why?”

And then came Anna Hazare! This really took the cake. Not only were you (or was it your party?) against greater accountability and transparency, you had to fight (with batons against defense-less sadhus and women) against the very concept every inch of the way. At the end of the day whom were you defending?  What were you defending? Were you defending your immunity? impunity perhaps?

And so Kapil ji, may I ask what hurts the feelings of the community more? Is it the half crazed ramblings of an idiotic Facebook user or the jaw dropping corruption of an elected and respected politician?  Does the emperor even know – that he is naked?