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MEMBERS-MEMBERS-1. SOMIL GUPTA(TEAM LEADER)1. SOMIL GUPTA(TEAM LEADER)

2. ANAND PRAKASH2. ANAND PRAKASH3. NAVIN KUMAR MISHRA3. NAVIN KUMAR MISHRA

4. PRATIK GOUTAM4. PRATIK GOUTAM5. SAURABH JAISWAL5. SAURABH JAISWAL

6. AMISH KUMAR6. AMISH KUMAR7. VISHANU KUMAR KUMAWAT7. VISHANU KUMAR KUMAWAT

Introduction – Engineering Entrance exam

• Engineering Entrance Examinations are one of the most popular entrance examinations conducted every year across the country .

• About 20 lakh students across the country candidate in these exams every year. This itself speaks volumes of the fact that these examinations hold high importance amongst science students in the country.

• These examinations contest for about 3,000 state and national level, private or governmental engineering colleges (as in 2009-10) providing 10 lakhs+ seats.

• Out of these, the premium institutes of the country, IITs, NITs, BITS and other renowned institutes (IITs, CFTIs, SFTIs, VITs, SRM, etc) offer only 44,600(app.) seats.

• For the first time in the history of Engineering Examinations, considered as the soul of our country, underwent a serious transition.

• IITs and NITs merged together to form JEE , thus promoting the idea of government “1 Nation - 1 exam” and incorporated the idea of normalisation, to be more precise Ab-normalisation .

• This presentation shall take you on a tour of analysis of normalization, its causes, resulting proposals, problems faced while its implementation, its faulty formula and its outcome. It presents the arguments for you, to decide whether it was A BOON or A BANE .

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IIT- JEE-A pathway to the coveted IITs • When it first started about 45 yrs ago, JEE was purely subjective

and consisted of question from four subjects i.e. PCM and English. Later English was eliminated.

• In 2000 concept of screening test was introduced. It was conducted before main examination, from which only top 20,000 candidates were selected to sit in the main examination. This system was abolished in the year 2006. One problem with this system was the small time gap between the announcement of results and the commencement of the mains exam. The students who failed, unnecessarily prepared for main paper instead of concentrating on other exams.

• In the year 2006,there was a biggest change in the history of IIT-JEE, the pattern of the examination was changed from subjective to objective ,a drastic change. The change was said to be a step towards the reduction of the role of coaching institutes in clearing of JEE.

• Introduction of an objective paper, brought concept of negative marking. This pattern is carrying on till date. Though pattern of the examination remains the same, the type of questions and their difficulty keeps changing every year.

• Various types of questions have been tried till now. These include straight single answer ones, multiple answers, integer type questions, paragraph type, etc.

• Every year, one of the IITs gets the chance to make the examination paper . A student could avail only two consecutive attempts just after class 12th .

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• As per the guidelines for deemed universities admissions to identical courses were required to be made through a common entrance test on all India basis. It was for this reason that All India Engineering Examination (AIEEE) was first conducted in 2002 under responsibility of CBSE.

• This national level competitive test is for admission to various under graduate engineering & architecture course in institute accepting the AIEEE score mainly 30 NITs & 5 IIITs.

• Till the year 2005 AIEEE comprised 2 compulsory papers for all students and 1 additional paper for B.Arch students. Paper 1 consisted physics and chemistry and paper 2 mathematics. Also, Differential marking was introduced first time in which questions carried 1.5 , 3 and 4 marks.

• Since then CBSE has made numerous changes in the pattern of AIEEE, although the type of questions had always been multi choice single correct objective questions.

• From the erstwhile 5 lakhs applicants in 2006 the number of students have constantly increased.

• The exam is generally held on the last Sunday of April and results are announced in the last week of May and first week of June . Candidates are ranked on an all-India basis & state basis.

• From April 2013, the examination has been replaced by JEE- MAINS.

AIEEE –A result of Unification

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PREVAILING SCENARIO COMPETITION BOILING INTENSE!!!1. Every year lakhs of students across the country take various

engineering entrance exams to get admission in their desired engineering college.

2. While most students aspire to study in prestigious IITs, there are many other reputed engineering colleges that feature in students' wish list. It is for this reason that many students take both IIT JEE and AIEEE every year to turn their dreams of studying in a prestigious engineering institute a reality.

3. Way back in 1961, very few students from different parts of the country took such exams. But with passing time, there was an exponential rise in number of students candidating such exams thus making the competition ten fold.

RESULTS OF THIS CHANGE AND ITS HAVOC Earlier students used to prepare in class 12th. 6-7 month

preparation was enough for students to crack IIT-JEE. But now competition is such that-

1. Students have started preparing right from class 7th2. The doing class 11-12 with simultaneous JEE preparation have

become popular.3. Preparing for such exams from 11th onwards isn’t enough.4. Reattempting the JEE exams or those doing intermediate and then

preparing for JEE in an year is not enough for getting into IITs.5. Cracking IIT without any coaching is a rare feat.

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The intense competition has resulted to rise of the coaching institutes-

1. These coaching institutes make students mechanical beings.

2. Instead of emphasising on the concepts these institutes make students solve hundreds of numerical so that they become automated to any question that comes.

3. The conversion of IIT-JEE into objective type examination further promoted them. Intuition and tricks replaced logic, reasoning and concepts.

4. With prime objectives to provide students a platform to get into such institutes, it slowly turned into a prosperous business field with huge profits.

5. Their numbers increased like swarm of flies. Within every loop and corner you would find a coaching institute .

6. Indeed in some parts of the country like Kota, a whole IIT ecosystem has emerged where students enrol themselves into dummy schools and prepare for the exams simultaneously without attending any classes.

7. All India Tests are organized in a similar manner as the examinations. Popular teachers use theatres as their lecture halls for teaching of about 500 students simultaneously.

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EMERGENCE OF DUMMY SCHOOLS AND DETERIORATION OF EXISTING SCHOOLING SYSTEM.

1. With increasing competition, students started showing disliking towards co-curricula and other liberal subjects which they found a waste of time which could have been utilized better for JEE preparation .

2. Consequently dummy schools emerged where attendance was not compulsory. The students were just required to give exams and that too could be dealt with. This provided them ample amount of time to devote to their preparations giving an edge over the others.

3. Thus joining these schools after class 10th has become a common trend among JEE aspirants these days.

4. For those still continuing their schools, attendance becomes a big hindrance. Managing school and coaching together has made the schedule hectic.

5. Lack of time has thus made it inevitable for these students to completely neglect their boards studies and concentrate on JEE preparations. Preparing for just 1 month just before the board exams has become common.

It is because of these reasons that the government sought to introduce board marks into their ranking so as to curb the coaching system and increase importance of board education.

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CAUSES FOR INTRODUCTION OF NEW PATTERN

As per the points of the proposals sent by MHRD to the various IITs

The former HRD minister Mr Kapil sibbal was wanting to apply 'one nation one test' concept in INDIA.Thats why he was keen to combine AIEEE and IIT into a single combined examination system for entrance to engineering colleges.

To make the students concerned about their boards.It was quite often that IITians didn't score well in Board examinations because their focus was on JEE. If weightage was given to the board examinations, they would be as good in board examination as in JEE.There are several examples where students had passed IIT but had failed in board examination owing to their negligence.

IITJEE's exponentially escalating competition had encouraged COACHING system for preparation of the exam, well known as 'KOTA FACTOR'. Abolishing erstwhile pattern of examination would discourage them.

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In JEE, everyone focused on pattern-wise preparation rather than understanding the essence of the topic. Hence analysis of the topic was excluded which would have strengthened the subject foundation, that was required. Hence board examination, which is subjective, should be given consideration.

JEE has failed to select the right kind of students which can be seen from the fact that not even a single 'Noble Prize'is won by an IITian so some change in pattern was necessary

To reduce the financial burden on Parents. The new system was meant to be fair to the people who didn't have access to the good educational facility available in the Metros or are not able to spend lacs on their child for coaching and study material.

To avoid confusion over the various examinations and their different syllabi, in turn, reducing the burden of preparation for various exams.

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PROPOSAL AND POSSIBLE CRITICISMs

PROPOSAL 1: ISEET (EARLY MAY 2012) It was brought to combine IITJEE and AIEEE into a common entrance

test ISEET(Indian Science-Engineering Eligibility Test). It was to be conducted in two parts-ISEET Mains and ISEET

Advance . Both papers were to be held on same day. The score in these combined exams will be used for entrance into

IITs,NITs,IISc ans other technical institutes through a common counselling procedure.

ISEET(mains) was to be a objective type aptitude test ISEET(advance) would be based on problem solving abilities in PCM.Weightage given to ISEET(mains) would be <=20% and

ISEET(advance) <=40 %Boards would be given consideration and weightage would be

>=40% Weightage given to the boards may not be less than 40% of the

score. It was also proposed that to bring uniformity, percentages of

students would be converted into percentiles and this would be used for further comparisons among the students.

CRITICISM IIT Faculty were concerned that the quality of student will definitely

be deteriorated. They held a completely contradictory belief and felt that the move is a step down for the already flawed Indian education system.

Three prominent IITs (Kanpur, Delhi, Roorkee) urged to HRD ministry not to go forward with the proposals.

The faculty was further concerned about the fact that very little time had been left to perfect the normalisation process.

Mr. M Anand Krishnan(Chairman Board of Governors ,IIT Kanpur ) felt that the decision might be hasty.

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PROPOSAL 2: CET ( MAY- EARLY JUNE 2012)This proposal was put forward in a meeting of joint council of IITs,NITs,

IIITs and other CFTIs. the meeting presided by Mr. Kapil Sibbal was conducted on 28th May 2012.

One common entrance exam(CET) was to replace the multiple entrance tests for admission into various institutions mentioned above. The exam was to be held in 2013.

The new CET was to be conducted into two parts-JEE Mains and JEE Advanced. Both these exams were to be conducted on the same day. Both the papers were to be purely PCM and the idea of aptitude test was discarded.

For admissions into NITs, IIITs,other CFTIs, a merit list was to be prepared based on cumulative performance in the boards (40% weightage), JEE Mains (30%) and JEE Advanced(30%).

A screening process was adopted for admission into IITs:

The cumulative normalised board scores and JEE Mains marks were to be used to shortlist top 50000 candidates.

50% weightage was to be given to the board scores and 50% to JEE Mains score.

Though all the students were to be allowed to appear in JEE advanced, the answer sheet of only top 50000 were to be evaluated for admissions into IITs. The rest were to be evaluated by NITs for their ranks (30% Advanced in their ranks)

A final merit list for IITs would be prepared based only on the candidates performance in JEE advanced 2013.

Board scores across different boards were decided to be normalised by the formula developed by ISI(Indian Statistical Institute)

2012 candidates could appear for board again in 2013.

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CRITICISM IIT Delhi faculty voicing their concerned for 2012 board batch, made a

public statement that "the early implementation would be unfair for 2012 board candidates and might increase their stress”

IIT Delhi opposed the idea of implementing the exam (CET) from 2013 , as that would be too soon. They suggested to conduct the examination in 2014.

IITs planed to conduct its own examination after the proposals were reached since common entrance test with normalised marks of the boards was being adopted.

All the IITs were against the CET but IIT Guwahati and IIT Kharagpur supported CET.

Although IIT kharagpur and IIT Guwahati's director were in support of CET but their faculties opposed the idea of CET. Senate faculty of IIT Kharagpur had rejected the idea common entrance test on 10 th July 2012.

PROPOSAL 3: FINAL PROPOSAL ( JULY 2012) In a meeting conducted on 4th July 2012 by NIT, CFTI,SFTI heads

headed by Mr. Kapil Sibbal, NITs had embraced the new pattern by deciding to give 40% weightage to normalised board scores and rest 60% to the JEE mains score.

As the NITs do not wish to increase the strength of students, they had decided not to include the advanced test scores .

It was also proposed that both the exams would be on separate days . A special committee comprising NIT Directors, CBSE chairman and

other experts will form and they will look into the normalisation issues . JEE Mains top 1,50,000 students were to give JEE Advanced that would

be used for selection to IITs The proposal was finally accepted by all and was implemented

in August 2012.

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DIVERSE BOARDS IN THE COUNTRY

There are 40 different boards in India .Including all the state boards adittionally the national boards like CBSE , CISCE , NIOS besides there are a few international boards as well.

These boards have varying difficulty level , varying sallybus moreover they conduct their own different exams .

For example nationalised boards like CBSE and CISCE offer a maximum of 6 and 7 subjects respectively .

In these different boards due to varying difficulty level there is a drastic variation in marks as well

1. For example highest marks in nationalised CBSE has peaked upto 495 out of 500 ie ., 99 %

2. While in one of the state boards like West Bengal state board the highest peaked upto 475 out of 600 ie., 79.16 %

Although students enrolling for state boards are comparatively higher than nationalised boards

1. For examples 6.5 lakh students enrolled for CBSE and 5.6 thouusand students enrolled in CISCE

2. While 34 lakh students enrolled in the UP board and 4.5 lakh atudents enrolled in west bengal board.13

BIGGEST PROBLEM- “Unification of diverse boards”

METHOD IMLOYED: NormalizationNormalization can be defined, in layman language, as the

process of collecting diverse and scattered data and statistically combining them using a common procedure so that the data becomes fit for comparison. It has been used for since a long time in US, Russia, UK, etc.

PROBLEMS IN NORMALIZING THE INDIAN BOARDS There is difference in the difficulty levels of different boards.

Evident from the fact that cut-off percentage of CBSE in JEE Advanced top 20 percentile was 77.8% while UP board was as low as 65%., Andhra Pradesh it was 87.2%, Meghalaya 49.4%.

The total scores for all the subjects, the marking pattern and syllabi for all boards is different for each other. While CISCE finds total out of 500(5 sub), Tamil Nadu Board has total of 1200(6 sub.)

Many of the state boards include regional subjects e.g. In Maharashtra Board, Marathi compulsory, in Bengal, Bengali is compulsory,etc.

The boards offer varying number of subjects. While CISCE offers 5-7 subjects, CBSE gives 4 subjects, Tamil Nadu has compulsorily 5 subjects, etc.

The process of scaling and moderating scores varies in different boards.

The role of non-science subjects in ranks. English plays great role in CISCE.

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THE PROCESS OF DEDUCTION OF FORMULA WAS’NT THAT EASY!!!

The MHRD had asked the ISI( Indian Statistical Institute) look into the following questions-

Do aggregate scores from different boards stable enough for usage as admission criteria with reasonable degree of confidence???

What is the best way of standardizing different boards in order to make comparison ???REPORT I REPORT I : (August 11, 2013) : (August 11, 2013) : i) Rank (Xi) in a particular subject is an approximate function of

Merit attribute(Wi) and kind of examination procedure (gi) provided merit is in direct relation with marks scored and “joint distribution of merit(marks) is same among all boards.”

Analysis of four different boards for 2008-9 in PCM brought forth great deviations from Assumption 2 and steep rise in 30-40 due to grace marks. In top 50 percentile, this problem became more prominent. Thus, ISI denied question of normalization as it felt it was impossible to bring all boards together in such less time.

REPORT IIREPORT II: (November 11, 2013) : (November 11, 2013) :ISI said that instead of taking varying marks, percentile can be

used for determination. of rank. On observing Percentile Vs. Fractioned scores for top 50 percentile, the graphs showed high variation in rank correlation with marks in different boards.

The percentile in one’s board would help to find equivalent WJ as normalized board scores.

The process was further analyzed and found infected with regional indiscriminancy , improper distribution, etc. Finally the ISI recommended that the above analysis should be done over a longer period of time. If stability predicted, then percentile can be used with a cut-off system. Percentile should be displayed by boards.

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THE NEW PATTERN - INTRODUCTION The process of examination for admission to IITs , NITs , SFTIs ,

CFTIs , and other private institutes was to be held in form of a 2 stage process :

a) JEE MAINS (similar to AIEEE) (b) JEE ADVANCED (similar to IIT JEE)

JEE MAINS: (STAGE 1)This examination was to be held in April 2013 and was to be

conducted by CBSE.The paper was to be conducted in 2 modes pen and paper

based and online based. students could choose any 1 of the two.

There were 2 papers : paper 1 was compulsory and had PCM. Paper 2 was optional and was required to be taken by students wishing to do B.Arch.

Online examination was to be conducted at assigned centres during the month of April-May. In 3 hours duration students had to answer the questions that came on the screen. Questions were selected arbitrarily from a question bank of same difficulty level.

Similar to the previous years’ papers of AIEEE, JEE mains paper was to be of 3 hours duration and would consist of 3 parts physics, chemistry, maths . Each of 30 questions.

It was to be an objective paper, consisting multiple choice single correct questions , with a negative marking of 1/4th of the question’s mark.

Top 1.5 lakhs students who had crossed the cut off marks were eligible to appear in JEE Advanced.

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An all India common merit list was to be prepared on the basis of JEE Mains marks + normalised board marks in 60:40 ratio.

The marks from the various boards were to be normalised on the basis of the formula to be given by ISI(Indian Statistical Institute).

This rank would be utilized for counselling to all above mentioned institutes except IITs and ISM Dhanbad. Some autonomous colleges used JEE Mains ranks or marks for selection. E.g. ISRO, IIT Hyderabad, IISc, IISER, DTU, NSIT, etc

JEE ADVANCED (STAGE 2)The selected 1.5 Lakhs students had to re-register for JEE

Advanced for appearing. The exam was to be conducted in the month of June. It was completely pen and paper based examination.The pattern of the paper was purely objective type. No pattern of

the questions was revealed before.There had to be 2 papers of 3 hours duration on the same day.

Both papers would have equal weightage of physics , chemistry and maths.

The marks obtained in this exam were sole criterion for preparing the CML.

This rank was required for admission to IITs and ISM Dhanbad. Marks or rank were also used by some other institutes in the process of counselling .

Apart from obtaining a rank the students had to be in the top 20 percentile of their respective board for being eligible to get a seat into IITs and ISM Dhanbad.

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NORMALISATION FORMULA USED Let the aggregate marks obtained by each student in JEE-

Main denoted by A Compute the percentile (P) of each student on the basis of

aggregate marks in his/her board B computed from the list of five subjects specified (each marked out of 100). The percentile is to be computed among all students of the board whose subject combinations meet the eligibility criteria of JEE-Main.

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Determination the JEE- main aggregate marks corresponding to percentile (P) at the All-India level. This is B1.

Here B1 is 48 Determination the JEE- Main aggregate marks corresponding to percentile (P) among the set of aggregate scores obtained in the JEE- Main by the students of that board. This is B2.

Here B2 is 80

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The normalised board score of the candidate is:

Here in the example B Final = = 64

Let the score of candidate in JEE Mains i.e. A = 220

For the purpose of admission where it has been decided to use the JEE Mains performance and the normalised Board performance in the 60:40 ratio, the composite score for drawing the merit list was computed as:

C = 60% of A + 40% of B final.

Here C = 0.6*220 + 0.4*64 = 157.6

B Final = B1 + B2 2

48 + 80 2

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Problem within same board. 40% board-weightage =144 marks out of 360 total.

the jee main written exam has A short head : Marks concentrated in 97-100, %ile. marks drop : 300+ for 99.5%ile to 80 for 96.8 %ile...A long tail : All students ranging from 0 to 97 %ile will be awarded almost same marks

So equating the percentile to board marks with jee mains marks is wrong.Students having their percentage high enjoyed this benefit , others didn'tEg: Student A Student B Jee mains = 345/360 Jee mains = 200/360 Board = 90% Board % = 97.6% Percentile = 95 Percentile = 99.98 Equivalent Jee marks = 110 Equivalent Jee marks = 330 Total score = 0.6*345+0.4*110 Total score = 0.6*200+0.4*330 = 251 = 252

This is not the case in boards.

Range of about 0.4*80 = 32 marks

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RESPONSE AND REACTION OF PEOPLE

The release of the pattern witnessed mixed viewed from student as well intellectuals.Out of the 7 premium IITs the senates of 5IITs except IIT Roorkee & Chennai had expressed opposition to the idea.

Not just the student presently studying in the IITs but also the IIT alumni expressed their disappointment on the new pattern.

President of IIT Delhi alumni association Somnath Bharti had called it a “dilution of the IIT envision by Pt. Nehru”. The association had sought for a stay on government decision by supreme court.

Faculty at IIT Delhi felt that normalisation formula was faulty and had many loop holes.

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Some tells inclusion o board marks would not be feesible step because of the problem of the lack of training in school. They felt student would keep going to coaching centres till govt. Does something to improve quality of education at school.

Some intellactuals expressed apprehensions above the step being political than benificial to students. The new pattern was to be introduced in 2013 and elections were to be held in 2014.

Anand kumar founder of super-30 had said the new process will be complicated and will add to confusion and pressure on students. He felt the exam would have an “elitist” look as it may end up “excluding rural students”.

IIT Kanpur professor Dheeraj Sanghi felt the addmission process in 2013 had led to many litigations , confusion & frustrations as expected before its commencement . He added that students were the casualties of an untested new system that hdnt been thought through and which was been imposed on the top.

Some felt the new pattern will not make much diiference only board marks are to be included otherwise the exam is same as the previous.

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PROBLEM WHILE EXECUTION OF PATTERN The new pattern was implemented in 2013. It was so complicated

that the students were confused. Many even did not know about the pattern. They did not get sufficient time to study according to the new pattern. So it was a cause of worry among students.

The result of boards was released and was very soon it was submitted to JEE mains. JEE Mains had given insufficient time for the submission of final marks after scrutiny. Many boards sent the corrected marks after scrutiny much after the CBSE stopped accepting corrected scores, thus causing inconvenience to students.

Due to the lack of time, every process was being done in haste. All procedures and instructions were available online. It was an inconvenience for those who could not have internet access.

The officers for query solving did not attend the calls with interest. Students kept calling numerous times after which their calls were entertained.

For the registration for JEE advanced of those who qualified JEE MAINS, students had got only ten days which was a great cause of worry for those students who was deprived of good internet facility. Many did not even come to know of the same and therefore had much inconvenience.

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OUTCOME NORMALISATION UNINTENTIONALLY FAVOURED CERTAIN

BOARDS The list of candidates selected for the IITs this year showed

that a vast majority of the successful candidates - more than 8,000 out of 9,700 - or over 80% came from just three school boards: the CBSE, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab state boards. CBSE board-5500 , Andhra Pradesh- 1,800, Another 750

from Punjab. There were 30 other boards in India from where a small count

of students had qualified.Thus it was proved that if you belonged to these boards, you would be at a profit.

Few students who qualified JEE Advanced does not get college because of the criteria of top 20 percentile in their respective board.

IMPROVEMENT OF PARTICIPATION AND PERFORMANCE OF STATE BOARDS IN JEE ADVANCEDIt was noted that the participation and the performance of the

candidates from state boards had improved in JEE-2013 in comparison to previous years.

 Reason can be cited in the fact that the number of “effective” students that appear and sincerely study in these boards is less (as these extend till the roots of society-villages) and so getting high percentile for sincere students is more as compared to CBSE and CISCE where the number of “effective” candidates is higher.

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EFFECT OF INCLUSION OF BOARD MARKS IN JEE MAIN RANKINGNumerous deserving students were deprived of their

seats into IITs and NITs solely because of their Board scores.

Owing to the fact that the normalization formula was faulty, Boards weightage went up drastically.

Those scoring good marks in boards outweighed those scoring exceptionally good marks in JEE.

A student who scored 323/360 in JEE Mains (Expected rank: under 30 in terms of score) with 93% in CBSE (not a bad percentage!!) got AIR 674 in JEE Mains. Fortunately, he got AIR 33 in IIT-JEE !!

Another student who was a city topper with 97.4% in ISC, but a mains score of 154 got a rank of 2714 (with these marks he could have got 35000-40000 in AIEEE.

EFFECT OF INCLUSION OF 20 PERCENTILE IN JEE ADVANCED

The new HRD minister Pallam Raju had admitted that confusion about the cut off had denied 79 students admission to the IITs.

Many who got respectable ranks in JEE Advanced could not get the seat owing to the fact that the result of their scrutiny could not be produc

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PROS It is now well clear that anyone couldn't get good rank in JEE

unless you get good marks in Boards. So students have started focussing on their 12th board curriculum rather than focussing only on IITor NIT entrance preparations.

The new pattern allowed only 20 top percentile students to take admission into IITs. Now a student studying in CBSE board has to score 78% for eligibility, while for M.P board it was 68% and for Bihar board it was 64%. With such low cutoffs in the state boards, one could cross the cutoff quite easily as compared to CBSE+Andhra board. So it gave an opportunity to under priviliged students as generally states board contain students from rural and undeveloped areas owing to its deep rooted presence.

The fees of state board schools are much lower as compared to CBSE schools so it helped the financially weak students in many states to grab the opportunity of joining the prestigious colleges of the country.

Importance of schools increased. Before the implementation of this pattern, students used to take admission into "dummy" schools and thus completely neglected their board studies. They only focused on IIT preparations in coachings. With this system, they started attending the school and studying their study curriculum seriously, improving their board performance.

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It was a common observation that students due to lack of school education and excessive engrossment into preparations right from class 11th, deprived them of personality grooming period of intermediate schooling. The pressure was so intense that the students literally isolated themselves from the society therefore becoming socially unsound. The system egged upon the students to attend schools having other co-curricular activities to refreshen and develop them.

The students in rural areas do not have access to coaching institutes, thus they have only boards to perform their best. Giving consideration to board marks benefited these students and helped them get a chance into IITs and NITs.

Generally students prepare for IITs and Board exams simultaneously therefore disadvantage to those who only focussed on preparations and neglected boards. Giving consideration to boards was beneficial to them.

Earlier, there were different exams for entrance, each having its own syllabus, so students had to prepare for each exam separately, causing inconvenience. The scheme of single examination pattern catered to this problem and helped to reduce confusion regarding registrations. Many colleges who held autonomous examinations like ISRO, IIIT Hyderabad, etc. now considered mains and Advanced marks, thus reducing the number of examinations to be given by a candidate.

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CONS of (ab)normalisation Late release of normalisation formula : formula was released

in month of February. Students couldn’t crack the formula, this terrible delay of information left the students helpless and dazed about how it was going to affect their results.

The board exams, as we all know, are purely subjective in nature. The number of people who took the board exam this year was a humongous 9 lakhs. With so many copies to check one can hardly expect the teachers to correct all copies fairly. Now that the board marks are such huge governing factors, one can expect more calligraphists from the nits than research workers!  

This system was also an injustice to the students who dropped 1 yr to prepare for IITs. These students had already given their board exams 1 year before, unaware of the importance of board's marks in deciding their ranks. So, they were helpless in front of this normalisation system.

Injustice to students who already took admission in dummy schools and went to various coaching hubs to prepare for various engineering exams. Many students had to return back to their home and were left with no choice other than taking admission in regular school.

We very well know that our 5 fingers are not same, same is the case with board exams. There is forgery in some boards which results in very high percentage of marks. This clearly is injustice to those students who get good marks on basis of their knowledge.

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Now students have to work in three tiers :-

Different boards differ in terms of difficulty levels, number of students, checking procedures etc. The normalisation process certainly gave an edge to the students taking their board exams from their respective states over those who took their board exams from nationalized boards.  In order to gauge the magnitude of difference between any two such students we may pay heed to the following example. Eg:

IITsJee

AdvanceJee MainsBoard exam

1. For the Boards : In order to bag good ranks in the Jee mains2. For the Jee mains : In order to qualify for Jee advance3. For the Jee advance : In order to get admission in IITs.

Student Name= XXXXXX Board= CBSE Board Percentage= 90.2% Marks in JEE (main) = 267 Rank= Beyond 5000

Student Name= ZZZZZZ Board= Rajasthan Board Board Percentage= 90% Marks in JEE (main) = 195 Rank= 4400

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Because of normalisation, all NITs are filled with toppers of their respective boards so, the students who have deep knowledge of science and were not able to perform good in board exam are unable to get into good colleges. So they look for their chances in colleges of abroad.

No time gap between board exam and JEE mains examination.

Previously there were more exams so students had more opportunity, now the students have limited opportunity. If they didn’t perform well in just one exam there all dreams to get into good colleges of India would shatter.

Subjects like physical education , language , etc which have no relation with science plays important role.

Cut off of top 20 percentile for JEE Advance did injustice to some boards.

A.P. Board– 91.8% Assam board– 56.6%

Bihar board- 65% T.N. Board– 90 .9%

Credibility and value of nits would drop considerably.

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RESISTANCE : REMOVAL OR CHANGEIITs had said that changes were brought about

in haste & have complicated matters. Normalisation formula was needed to be

revisited as some analysts believed there needed to be more 'fields' or 'queries' to create the standardized measure and hence the ranking of the boards.

coaching institutes said normalisation process made it difficult for deserving candidates.

IIT alumni said to begin agitation July-end to protest new system.

Neeraj Malhotra father of student of Hyderabad said that the normal procedure was unscientific. They filed case in Andhra Pradesh high court.

AP high court had asked CBSE to reply to its notice and send its official to explain the normalisation procedure in the next hearing.

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Fifty three petitioners, mainly parents of aggrieved candidates, moved the apex court with a writ petition seeking its intervention in the matter. JEE-Main, the first of a two-tier engineering entrance exam system, aims to select students for all the 30 (NITs), half a dozen Indian Institutes of Information Technology and other top technology schools, except the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Kshitij Garg, a coordinator of the petitioners, said the problem began when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), in charge of JEE-Main, normalized the board marks and entrance performance.

“The normalization process is complex and unscientific. Instead of authorities putting out the normalization process well in advance, they disclosed it in May, a month after the JEE-Main exam. It has affected the ranking of many and thus affected their chance to get admission in one of the top engineering schools,” Garg had said. “How can you play the game and then give the rules? It does not put all school boards on an equal footing in any way.”

One of the petitioners from New Delhi said his son, based on his performance in the JEE-Main and the Class 12 exam, was expecting a ranking of within 18,000 but got a rank that exceeded 41,500. “This rank has literally shut the chance to get admission in any of the NITs,” said the petitioner, who didn’t want to be named.

The NITs, ranked next only to the IITs, admit nearly 25,000 students every year.

Parents and students had also approached the high courts in Delhi, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh seeking a stay or deferment by a year on the new pattern of normalization to create a national merit list.

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REACTIONS OF GOVERNMENTThe government specially the MHRD was taken aback

by hundreds of petitions filed against its normalisation procedure at the courts.

The government had then responded by saying it will revise and review the Jee admissions process and assessment of rank.

Although the supreme court agreed that admissions to engineering colleges would be a subject to the decisions on the petitions “ it refused to stay admission processes”.

There was major protest in the Andhra Pradesh region from where the HRD minister Kapil Sibbal said , since election were near(2014), it was difficult for him to brush aside the interest of A.P. people. So he was trying to please the people.

Chairman of CBSE who was in-charge of normalisation process didn’t respond to calls seeking his comments.

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CONTINUATION OF PATTERN IN 2014Despite the mammothian resistance faced by

the examination pattern of 2013, the HRD Ministry decided to continue the existing system with very little changes.

In September 2013, IIT Council approved the decision of the JAB (Joint Admission Board) Advanced to continue with the two-phase JEE Pattern for 2014.

The option to write paper 1 of JEE Mains online was officially withdrawn from JEE 2014 onwards and it has been put off for a later date.

The JAB had met on August 18th to discuss the examination pattern that was to be adopted for JEE 2014. The meeting was chaired by IIT Delhi director, focus was on the continuance of existing JEE pattern, the problems faced by the students and the controversial 20 percentile clause.

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SOME SUGGESTIONS

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• By these graphs, its clear that if PCM marks are uniformly taken with the same percentile method as recommended by the ISI, in its second report (percentile with cut off) then the normalization formula can be strengthened.

• Some say that giving equal importance to the toppers of a small board to that of a larger board may not satisfy merit, for that the cut-off % as given by IITs can be used to develop a credit system on basis of difficulty level, number of students, etc. which may be multiplied in fraction form to the marks to obtain the desired normalization.

• The Mains should give all boards deadline strictly for displaying their results and attending to scrutiny appeals.

• There have been a weak correlation between the JEE ranks and Mains marks amongst students. If a specific weightage is given to the advanced scores is given, this discrepancy in relation can be prevented.

• CBSE and JAB should improve upon its offline communication modes and increase its reporting centres.

• MHRD should have called off this pattern until a fool-proof pattern comes into play.

• The ISI must deal with stats of more than 4 boards.

BIBLIOGRAPHYwww.indiatoday.intoday.inISI reports, proposals on Aug 11, Nov 11 (1&2

pdf files)IIT Council Scheme for normalization of board

scores by Somnath Baneerjee, IIT Delhi Department.

en.wikipedia.orgwww.time4education.compdf of normalisation formula on jeemain.nic.inwww.indiaeducationreview.comarticles.timesofindia.indiatimes.comzeenews.india.comwww.entrancei.comwww.100marks.com

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“I have little empathy for all those who find the thinnest part of the wood and

then proceed to make a many great holes in it”

-Albert Einstein