Single entrance test raises queries on quality of students

“The main point that the IITs have been raising is that introducing ISEET from 2013 and also taking into consideration the Class XII results will be difficult because there needs to be a specific formula for the normalisation of the marks of all the 42 boards across the country,” said D C Mangeshkar from the IITian’s Prashikshan Kendra.

Speaking about the impact it would have on the quality of students being selected,Sanjeet Singh Adarsh of Shrinivas Academy said,“Organising one such exam on such a grand scale is difficult. Also,this one test would mainly have objective type questions,which is not really a great way of testing students. Over the years,we have seen the quality of students entering the institutes going down,mainly because of this objective type questioning which encourages rote learning.”

However,in a nutshell,if only ISEET is taken into consideration,there should not be a huge impact on the students. “There are five possibilities out of the meeting on Monday. There are two extreme possibilities where the HRD will consider only the ISEET marks or the IITs might suggest conducting their separate exams. We feel both of these are unlikely. If only performance in ISEET is considered,it will not have a major impact on the students. However,if the Class XII marks are considered and there is a pattern change in the exam,it will have a major impact as students will need to prepare accordingly,” said Mangeshkar.

Nearly 3,000 students had appeared for IIT-JEE from Pune this year.