Student’s corner

Dear Students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think it is a good move to give 40 per cent weightage to board marks and 60 per cent to test scores in for IIT-JEE?

BEST RESPONSE

The overall agenda of IITs is to 'make' quality engineers and not to 'produce' replicated models. The IIT students are industry drivers with their capability to think out of the box and to provide end-to-end solutions nurturing the bottom line. Board exams test the descriptive problem solving ability of students whereas JEE gauges the analytical approach. A sound combination of these two will help provide logical minds to IITs. Moreover, this shift in paradigm will definitely boost the morale of those worthy students who can't make into IITs due to lack of resources to avail coaching.

 

-- Nandish Agarwal, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida.

OTHER RESPONSES

In the dynamic world of corporates,the requirements for a better candidate have increased. Overall developed student is more required than those who prepare at the 11th hour. Entrance exams are just a parameter and do not produce a clear and whole picture of a candidate. Hence it is an excellent move to consider the past of the student so that the best candidate can be picked up.

-- Jimit Parikh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.

Re-modeling the nature of the 'mother of all exams', so as to give weightage to both school and the exam performance is a right step. IIT-JEE has such an aura of being a prestigious and difficult exam that a coaching industry worth a billion rupees has developed around it encouraging students to pay little attention to school but spend time at the coaching centers. Introducing weightage for the school results will force students to pay equal attention to school as well as on the entrance test. However, it remains to be seen how this change impacts the coaching industry.

-- Rahul Gautam, IIIT-Delhi.

Every serious IIT aspirant prepares hard for the institute leaving no stones unturned. While there is nothing wrong in being ambitious, in the quest to secure a place in the much coveted institutes, students neglect the board exams. As a result we get to see a lot of below average board results for students having the potential otherwise. Weightage to relatively easy board exams makes the task easier and hence reduces unnecessary pressure. It also acts as a saving grace for non-converters who can find promising career outside the IITs.

-- Abhirup Dutta, IISWBM Kolkata.

A question can have different answers depending on the way a problem is being formulated. By decreasing the test score weightage of IIT-JEE to 60 per cent our policy makers are envisioning a check on the proliferating coaching industry but by this they have cornered the crux of the problem which is: 'how to select the real talent?'  This is not a good move because the real problem is with the questions being asked in JEE which are far above the board exams level. Bringing the two exams on a similar level could rather have been a more pro-active move.

-- Prateek Parimal, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).

The screening process for admission to the IITs should test the analytical and logical skills of students, which the board examinations in India fails to achieve. Moreover, there is still no consistency followed in evaluating the subjective-based board examinations, thereby giving 40 per cent weightage to board marks seems imbalanced and extravagant. The present scenario of the board exams needs to seriously assessed and re-evaluated if they will be used as a selection parameter in the IITs.

-- Akshay Chadha, NSIT, Delhi.

Though the move is good, due to subdued interest of students in school education, it is required to improve the school level education. Otherwise normalisation of percentages of students from various boards is not possible and various state board will inflate their marks and may bring the same 100 per cent cut-off fiasco as recently witnessed by DU. What is more required is to conduct two exams for the same admission and those who miss the first one for any reason will have a second chance. In view of the above, 40 per cent weightage may be high.

-- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College Of Engineering And Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow.

Your responses should reach us at edu@businessstandard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think government's move to provide loan for vocational training will help promote skill development?