Bracing up for the IIT-JEE?

Updated on: Monday, April 06, 2009

The joint entrance examination, used as a benchmark for admissions to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, is just round the corner. Young IIT aspirants, who have just completed their pre-university or 12th standard examinations, are busy with last-minute-cramming, strategising and brushing up on their year-long efforts. Going by the sharp increase in applicants — 3.95 lakh students applied, as against 3.2 lakh in 2008 — the ‘IIT dream’ has certainly not lost its sheen.

And with 13 IITs to choose from, and two others in Indore and Himachal Pradesh set to open admissions this year, for many their dream college has only moved closer home. Needless to say, competition will be stiff; and with news reports constantly talking about the low recruitment scene in your average engineering college, the rush to Brand IIT is likely to increase. News reports have attributed this surge to more students applying under various reserved quotas — nearly 1.55 lakh, as against around 50,000 last year. Last year, there was a total of 6,752 seats on offer in the seven old IITs and the six new ones. However, with several of them not having separate campuses, students are sceptical about them. For instance, IIT Bhubaneswar is operating out of IIT Kharagpur. Bhuvana Anil Kumar of the Triumphant Institute of Management Education, a coaching centre chain, says that students were apprehensive last year. “Like any other brand when we have more chains – more valid in educational institutions – people look at it with a bit of caution,” she explains. However, she feels, that the IIT brand name will prevail, and those who don’t make it to the older institutes will pick the new IITs over a regional college.
Cut-offs

Until last year, subject cut-offs were not a matter of concern for this exam considering cut-offs were as low as zero and two. With the mode of calculating cut-offs back to the national-average method, the figure is likely to be a double digit number.

This means that students cannot afford to neglect any subject, and must do reasonably well in all sections. “Don’t forget that the subject cut-off will be higher this year. So don’t hesitate to give more attention to a subject in the Paper 2 if you have not attempted that subject to your satisfaction in Paper 1.
Tips to use

The difficulty of this exam is because the questions are unique, and requires both an in-depth knowledge of subjects and the skill to apply various questions in combination. Several websites forums provide data analysis of trends, section-wise break-ups and JEE pattern changes over the years. The Hindu Education Plus spoke to experts to put together some tips for the fresh IIT aspirant.

Firstly, relax. The pattern hasn’t changed for three years, and is not likely to change Ms. Anil Kumar says: “Only possible change could be in the type of questions in some sections. Last year, section 1 had questions with multiple right answers, and Section 2 had matrix-match type questions. Except for such minor changes, things will be the same.” Hence, the most important thing is to read the instructions carefully.

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Bracing up for the IIT-JEE?

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