Mumbai students say Class 12 marks don’t determine admission to top colleges, so why study?

Mumbai city news: More and more central exam boards are reducing the importance of Class 12 marks

Gone are the days when your Class 12 marks determined how eligible you were to gain admission to top degree colleges. With more and more central exam boards reducing the importance of Class 12 marks, focusing on the exam is becoming even more difficult, said students.

Students appearing for the IIT JEE needed to score at least 75% in their HSC exams or be in the top 20 percentile of the state board exams to be eligible for the examinations. However, their admission to IIT will not depend on their Class 12 marks. (HT File Photo)

In 2016, the Supreme Court made it clear that admissions to all medical and dental courses across the country would be conducted on the basis of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). Similarly, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) recently announced that from 2018 onwards, admission to all engineering courses will be conducted on the basis of an all-India entrance test.

“While we can still work on the syllabus for maths and chemistry, the physics syllabus for state board and NCERT is different. We will have a tough time focusing on both curricula for our exams next year,” said Ojasa Chitre, 16, a Class 12 student.

In April 2016, the Union human resources and development (HRD) ministry said students appearing for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) needed to score at least 75% in their HSC exams or be in the top 20 percentile of the state board exams to be eligible for the examinations. However, their admission to IIT will not depend on their Class 12 marks.

“We start preparing for these exams in Class 9 and are not relieved of the pressure of examinations until the Class 12 exams and entrance exams end. What makes the problem worse is that even with integrated coaching, we end up focusing on two separate curricula — one for the HSC board exam and another for the entrance exam, which is unfair,” said Vyomika Sharma, 17, an IIT aspirant. Vyomika has bagged the all India rank of 540 in her JEE-Mains exam and is now eligible for JEE –Advanced, which will be held on May 21.

In the past four years, the syllabus for entrance exams for medical aspirants has changed thrice. While everyone wants the syllabus to be uniform, students also want the syllabus to stop changing so frequently. “In the past two years, we have been subjected to two separate curricula. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the government doesn’t change the syllabus overnight once again. It’s one thing to study two different syllabi, but the stress is worse when we are unsure if the exam will be based on the same curriculum,” said Tanvi Tiwaskar,16, a student of Nirmala Memorial Foundation College, Kandivli.