From 2013, One Engineering Entrance Exam for All

Starting from 2013, there will be a new format for admission to all central government-funded engineering institutes — IITs, NITs, IIITs etc.

Now there will be one common entrance test, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which will replace the present IIT-JEE and AIEEE. It will give more weightage to Standard XII exam results and comprise of two objective type tests — JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced — which will both be organized the same day.

The JEE merit list will be prepared on the basis of cumulative score of marks of Intermediate exam, Main and Advanced. The Main will have multiple-choice questions, while the nature and modalities of the Advanced test will be determined by the IITs’ Joint Admission Board (JAB).

For the IITs, only the top 25% who are above the cut-off and get the highest percentile on the basis of XII standard marks and JEE-Main will be screened for a special JEE-Advanced; 50% weightage will be given to XII Standard marks and 50% to JEE-Main scores. The IIT merit list will be prepared on the basis of the special Advanced exam result.

But seat and course allotment for all the IITs will be held together in joint counseling.

For the NITs, IIITs and other central government-funded engineering colleges, there will be no screening test. Their merit list will be based on intermediate exam marks for which 40% weightage will be given. Main and Advanced exam scores will have 30% weightage each.

At the end there will be 2 lists, one for IITs and one for other colleges. However, all students will be ranked, and IIT ranked students can also apply to other engineering institutes based on this list.

The CBSE will organize the JEE. The states will have the freedom to join the procedure for admissions in their engineering colleges and the autonomy to determine their own relative weightages to Std XII marks, and performance in Main and Advanced exams.

According to HRD minister Kapil Sibal, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana have already decided to adopt this new model for their engineering exams from 2013.

The decision was announced following a meeting of the Joint Councils of IITs, NITs and IIITs, with the Federation of Faculty of IITs.

The battle between the IITs and the government has been a long-drawn-out one. Opposing Sibal's move, the IITs had felt that a single JEE may dilute the quality of their students and were demanding a separate test to further screen students best suited for IITs.

“The kind of academic training imparted in IITs is different from AICTE syllabus. Hence, the mindset and aptitude of the students too has to be different. This is the reason why we needed a separate examination for IITs,” said Sanjay Dhande, director of IIT-Kanpur. The IIT Council has, however, agreed to move to the one-nation-one-exam format by 2015 with IITs too following the same pattern as NITs, IIITs etc.

To prevent any disadvantage to the earlier batches of Std XII, it has been decided that those who appeared for the Std XII exam in 2012 can improve their performance by appearing for the same exam again in 2013.