Peers’ scores to affect IIT selection
Students seeking
admission to some of
the country’s top
engineering colleges this
year don’t need to
worry only about their
performance. How
others from their school
board perform
compared to students
from other boards in
the first leg of the two-
tiered admissions to
the Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) may
also affect their
chances at selection.
Criticised for choosing a
selection process that
many argue
discriminates against
students of more
competitive boards like
the Central Board of
Secondary Education
(CBSE), organisers of
the admission test
have decided on a new
formula that may
negate this bias. But
the alternative
admission process,
made public late on
Friday, also leaves
students less in control
of their fate than
earlier.
Apart from the
percentile score
obtained by the student
in her class XII exam
and her score in the
Joint Entrance
Examination (JEE) Mains,
the first stage of the
two-tiered IIT entrance
test, the overall
performance of her
school board in the JEE
Mains will also be
factored in preparing a
ranking list of students.
“How the student’s
board has performed,
overall, in the JEE Mains,
will also be a factor in
calculating ranks in the
merit list,” CBSE
chairman Vineet Joshi
said on Friday.
Till now, the
mechanism proposed by
the CBSE – which
conducted the JEE Mains
– for ranking students
involved a 60%
weightage to their
performance in the
entrance test, and 40%
weightage to their
percentile score in the
board examination.
But this proposed
mechanism triggered
concerns among
students from boards
like the CBSE – rated
traditionally tougher
than several state
boards – because
procuring the same
percentile score in their
board is harder than it is
for counterparts in less
competitive boards.
“We want to create a
normalization
mechanism that
accounts for
differences between
boards and ensures a
level playing field,” Joshi
told HT.
But the new proposal
also means that the
ranking of students will
depend on more than
just their performance
relative to other
students. It will also
depend on how well – or
poorly – others from
their board perform
compared to
counterparts from
other school boards.
The ranking list will be
used by the National
Institutes of
Technology (NITs) and
other central
engineering schools, and
for 50% seats in state
government engineering
schools – which produce
the vast majority of
India’s engineering
graduates.
Students in the top
150,000 based only on
the JEE Mains are eligible
to sit for a JEE
(Advanced) test, to be
conducted by the IITs
in June. The IITs will
eventually pick
students based on their
scores in the JEE
(Advanced), if they
stand within the top
20% of their school
board.
admission to some of
the country’s top
engineering colleges this
year don’t need to
worry only about their
performance. How
others from their school
board perform
compared to students
from other boards in
the first leg of the two-
tiered admissions to
the Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) may
also affect their
chances at selection.
Criticised for choosing a
selection process that
many argue
discriminates against
students of more
competitive boards like
the Central Board of
Secondary Education
(CBSE), organisers of
the admission test
have decided on a new
formula that may
negate this bias. But
the alternative
admission process,
made public late on
Friday, also leaves
students less in control
of their fate than
earlier.
Apart from the
percentile score
obtained by the student
in her class XII exam
and her score in the
Joint Entrance
Examination (JEE) Mains,
the first stage of the
two-tiered IIT entrance
test, the overall
performance of her
school board in the JEE
Mains will also be
factored in preparing a
ranking list of students.
“How the student’s
board has performed,
overall, in the JEE Mains,
will also be a factor in
calculating ranks in the
merit list,” CBSE
chairman Vineet Joshi
said on Friday.
Till now, the
mechanism proposed by
the CBSE – which
conducted the JEE Mains
– for ranking students
involved a 60%
weightage to their
performance in the
entrance test, and 40%
weightage to their
percentile score in the
board examination.
But this proposed
mechanism triggered
concerns among
students from boards
like the CBSE – rated
traditionally tougher
than several state
boards – because
procuring the same
percentile score in their
board is harder than it is
for counterparts in less
competitive boards.
“We want to create a
normalization
mechanism that
accounts for
differences between
boards and ensures a
level playing field,” Joshi
told HT.
But the new proposal
also means that the
ranking of students will
depend on more than
just their performance
relative to other
students. It will also
depend on how well – or
poorly – others from
their board perform
compared to
counterparts from
other school boards.
The ranking list will be
used by the National
Institutes of
Technology (NITs) and
other central
engineering schools, and
for 50% seats in state
government engineering
schools – which produce
the vast majority of
India’s engineering
graduates.
Students in the top
150,000 based only on
the JEE Mains are eligible
to sit for a JEE
(Advanced) test, to be
conducted by the IITs
in June. The IITs will
eventually pick
students based on their
scores in the JEE
(Advanced), if they
stand within the top
20% of their school
board.
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