MH-CET candidates rise, performance drops

Kedar Vaidya studied for a month for his HSC exam and scored 95%. So when he discovered his engineering entrance score was a mere 149 out of 200 after two years of preparation, he was shocked. A score of at least 170 plus is required to make it to a known engineering college.

Kedar Vaidya studied for a month for his HSC exam and scored 95%. So when he discovered his engineering entrance score was a mere 149 out of 200 after two years of preparation, he was shocked. A score of at least 170 plus is required to make it to a known engineering college.

HT Image

Results for the entrance test to engineering and medical colleges (MH-CET) were declared on Tuesday and students seemed dissatisfied.

“I could not believe my score. I barely studied for my Class 12 but did so well. I don’t understand what happened,” said Vaidya, a student of Ruia College.

A look at the results of the past few years shows a decline in the performance of students in both engineering and medical examinations although number of candidates opting for the test is increasing. In the medicine entrance test (physics, chemistry and biology), the percentage of students qualifying for admissions has dropped by almost 50% from 24% in 2008 to 12.01% this year. The engineering entrance (physics, chemistry, math) results tell a similar story. While this year only 37 students have scored above 190, last year 183 made it to that elite bracket and 210 made it in 2009.

Principals feel that students are burdened with too many entrance tests these days. “Preparations for the JEE (the entrance test to the IITs) and CET is entirely different. Between the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE), JEE, CET and the Class 12 board students are not able to focus on any one exam,” said Tushar Desai, principal, DG Ruparel College.

These multiple entrance tests are the only hope for Vaidya. He is now hoping that his all India JEE rank of 4133 will get him a seat in any one of the new IITs. “If not the IITs, my rank of 5000 in AIEEE will help me get into a National Institute of Technology,” said Vaidya.