Major Changes in IIT-JEE Format recommended top authority

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has chose to put the recommendations of the committee in the public domain for wide consultations and decided that the JEE 2016 will be conducted in the same manner as 2015, with the enhanced intake from 1.5 lakh to two lakh into the JEE (Advanced) stage.

Major changes have been proposed by a high-powered panel for IIT entrance exams including setting up of National Testing Service (NTS) that would hold aptitude tests to shortlist four lakh students for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

The Committee has advisable establishing a National Testing Service by early subsequent yr to conduct a flair check to look at the scientific aptitude and progressive considering capacity. "This shall test scientific thinking, which no amount of coaching can teach", said a senior ministry official. "But they began to depend more on coaching classes, thus negating the objective of bringing the coaching menace to an end", said one of the NIT directors, who had strongly favoured scrapping the weightage given to Class XII marks.

The JEE, to be conducted by the IITs, will have questions on physics, chemistry and mathematics.

A CEP member said the inspiration for the aptitude test was the SAT, which students in the United States take to get admission in colleges. "There will be a cut-off to qualify for the JEE (Advanced)", said a committee member.

In a bid to discourage students from enrolling in coaching institutes, the government had changed the format of the IIT-JEE - dividing it into the Mains and the Advanced. This was done on the recommendation of a committee chaired by Idi Chandy, a senior professor of IIT-Madras. The HRD Ministry has not announced a timeframe to decide on the matter but has clarified that JEE 2016 will be conducted in the same way as now and that the 40 percent weightage for Class 12 marks for admission to NITs would continue.

The committee was also asked to design the exam pattern in such a way that the role of coaching institutes is reduced.

It has also been suggested by the committee that students with the aptitude for science should be groomed right from school. The top 200,000 students from JEE (Main) would be allowed to take the JEE (Advanced).