No change in 20-percentile rule for IIT-2014 entrance test

No change in 20-percentile rule for IIT-2014 entrance test:

MUMBAI: The 'controversial' percentile system that determines students' eligibility for admissions to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will stay as is for the 2014 exam.

On Sunday, members of the IITs' Joint Admission Board (JAB) jointly resolved to conduct the JEE-Advanced as it was in 2013. The exam, however, might be advanced by a week and be conducted on May 25.

The JAB meeting was held to review the 2013 exam and to propose any changes, if need be. While the new policy, introduced in 2013, requires students to clear the two-tier exam—JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced, successful candidates also have to be among the top-20 percentile scorers in Class XII exams of their respective boards. A proposal to relax the 20 percentile cut-off was under consideration. At least 79 candidates who cleared both the levels in the 2013 exam could not secure seats as they scored less than the 20 percentile cut-off in their boards. Several of these candidates were from Andhra Pradesh. A related matter is pending in the Supreme Court. A source said that JAB maintained the status quo as the issue was being legally challenged.

A JAB member said there was not enough data to back the "allegation" that the system was wrong, though there was a proposal to tweak it. "Students who were not selected despite clearing both levels were not eligible as they scored less than the cut-off of their boards. There was no mistake in the system. If there are two consecutive years where we experience a problem and there is data to back the claim, then we might think of revising it," said the official.

The JAB had met to discuss primarily the eligibility norms, the exam date and its format. The IIT Council, which will meet on September 3, will have to pass the JAB's Sunday resolution. The next JAB meeting will be held on September 15.

The IITs were also considering shortlisting the top two lakh candidates, instead of 1.5 lakh, from the JEE-Main. However, that too will not change. "There is no need to shortlist more students as at the end only around 10,000 actually get selected. The rest get disqualified," said the official. There will not be any change in the pattern of the test too. "Most of the members felt we should allow the current multiple choice questions to continue without changes at least for the 2014 exam. The 2013 exam was conducted well on schedule," said JEE-Advanced 2013 chairman HC Gupta from IIT-Delhi. IIT-Kharagpur will be conducting the 2014 exam.

Source:TimesofIndia