Common test for all engineering colleges likely

A committee of directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is working on a proposal to have a single entrance test for all engineering aspirants in India.

A committee of directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is working on a proposal to have a single entrance test for all engineering aspirants in India.

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If accepted, it would mean an end to the IITs’ Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) and all other individual entrance tests, such as the All India Engineering Entrance Examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education.

“Engineering students are under too much pressure because of the multiple exams they have to take in their quest for admission,” said S.C.Saxena, director, IIT-Roorkee. “A single entrance test is one of the modifications we are looking at.”

“We want a more analytical and skill-based admission test,” he added. “We want to increase the weightage given to the Class XII exam so that science students take it more seriously.”

Currently, most aspirants prepare harder for the entrance exams than for their school-leaving board examination because the marks obtained in the latter are not taken into account for admission into engineering institutes.