Etoos Academy

Friday 26 July 2013

NO ENTRY: EXAM THAT FAILED IIT

Admission system overhauled apparently in bid to reduce burden on students and make school-leaving results (Board marks) matter
    A two-step admission process followed: The JEE main and the JEE Advanced
    Top 1,50,000 of those who qualified in JEE Main took JEE Advanced
    The JEE Advanced gives you chance at getting into one of the 16 IITs. Total 9,885 seats
    Those who didn’t make it to JEE Advanced stood a chance to study at the IIITs, NITs and Central Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI)
    CBSE conducted JEE-main, IITDelhi conducted JEE-advanced Passing IIT tests not enough, final rank decided by clubbing Board results
A student had to be among top 20 percentile in his Board
To bring Board results from all Boards (CBSE, state, others) into a standardized format, qualifying students’ Class XII
results from all Boards tossed around in a math mixie
This normalization process formula was prepared by
Indian Statistical Institute
Explaining formula & normalization for lay persons failed. Beyond few steps, the complicated process stops making sense
    Experts also foxed by sheer abnormalities in final ranking that defy common sense, logic and sense of fairness
    Final ranks showed students who had made it to IIT because of good ranking in IIT Advanced test hadn’t actually got in
    The other big-data problem was different interpretations of the 20-percentile qualifier NOW WHAT?
Students, parents fuming, PIL filed. Admissions not stayed
Authorities stand firm. Say these teething troubles
HRD ministry yet to decide on reviewing changes in IIT JEE
IITs say changes were brought about in haste and have complicated matters
    Normalization formula to be revisited as some analysts believe there need to be more ‘fields’ or ‘queries’ to create the standardized measure and hence the ranking of the Boards
    Coaching institutes say normalization process makes it difficult for deserving candidates
    IIT alumnis to begin agitation July-end to protest new system

IIT (Ab)Normalization: How they got it wrong

Experiment Goes Awry: Students Pay Heavily For Botch-Up

    Kapil Sibal wanted his stint as HRD minister to be memorable. He wanted to leave behind an enduring legacy. He proposed sweeping changes in the education system.
    In the nearly three-and-half years he was at the helm, the most effective change he undertook was confined to examinations: The CBSE Class X board examination was made optional. Then, after lengthy deliberations, a single examination for engineering was mooted.
    Students, who spent their summers taking one entrance test after another, lapped up the idea. By putting the emphasis on the Class XII results, the government wanted to restrict the coaching centres’ hold on the system. But there were enough detractors too.
    States, though supportive, weren’t willing to yield ground. Only Gujarat and Nagaland agreed. Haryana and Uttarakhand were already part of the earlier All India Engineering Entrance Examination and went along. The IITs, fearing a drop in quality, weren’t keen to be integrated with a larger system. A complicated normalization process was devised to bring all boards on a par. The idea was to factor in Class XII result with JEE (Main) scores for admissions to NITs and central government technical institutes.
    The IITs still had their say. Only 1.5 lakh of those who cleared JEE (Main) could take JEE (Advanced) for IIT admissions. Of these, only 1.2 lakh finally appeared. A high JEE (Advanced) score wasn’t enough for an IIT seat. The extra factor was the stress on the Class XII result. A student had to be in the top 20 percentile of his/her Board result. Instead of a single examination, a complicated two-tier system was created in a rush.
    Since June, it’s been chaos. The single exam dream went awry. Students couldn’t crack the normalization formula till the JEE (Main) scores came. Those with high JEE (Main) marks and reasonably high Class XII scores – by today’s standard 90% isn’t a good enough Boards score – found their ranks had slipped. Litigations began.
    The 20 percentile factor became contentious because Boards got their calculations wrong. They calculated it on the basis of total students who had taken the state’s Class XII exams, whereas it had to be on the basis of the number of students who had passed. Many like Nishant (see interview) suffered. Cut-off percentages jumped, especially in Andhra Pradesh, barring 79 students from a possible IIT seat. IITDelhi director R V Shevgaonkar said the Boards overstepped their brief. “It’s unfortunate but nothing can be done.”
    CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said the confusion was because it was the first year. Stress on Boards marks had thrown up interesting results, he added. “Preliminary analysis of data reveals this year NITs will have a bigger representation of women and those from rural and semi-rural backgrounds.” The new system should continue. “But genuine concerns should be addressed.”
    Joshi hopes from next year more states would join in. Joshi’s eventual dream: A single examination that can be taken more than once in a year to improve scores.
    Shevgaonkar, though not critical of normalization, favours IITs having their own entrance test. But the confusion and tears of students being brushed aside as teething problems could have been avoided with transparency and deliberation.