AIEEE exam: No ‘right’ answers on website has students in a fix

Even as the Central Board of Secondary Education has uploaded the OMR answersheet of each student, who had appeared in AIEEE offline exam, on its website, the absence of right answers on it has left many candidates baffled. As, 'right' answers uploaded by various coaching centres across the country on their websites vary.

"In IIT-JEE too, the answer keys were uploaded that helped resolve some goofs. With various coaching centres uploading different 'right' answers, it has caused much confusion among candidates," said Sangeeta Khanna, who runs a coaching institute in Sector 24.

Divankar Sharma, who gave the offline exam, said, "I am still not clear about the right answers."

Rashmi Sehgal, who too wrote the offline exam, said, "The board should have given the answers, so that we know about our performance." The answersheets have been uploaded to enable students to challenge the board in case any of the answers differ from the one they marked during the offline test.

Online examination candidates do not have the option.

The scanned images of answersheets can be checked on its website www.cbse.nic.in and www.aieee.nic.in. If a candidate wants to challenge the uploaded answersheets, he can submit an application at any of the CBSE regional offices or at AIEEE unit at Patparganj, Delhi-92, on or before June 6 till 12 noon, along with the prescribed fees of Rs 500 per recorded response challenged.

CBSE allows absentees till May 5 to register online

If for some reason you were unable to make it to your All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) offline centre on April 29, here comes a second chance.

The CBSE, the body which conducts the exam, has decided to allow anyone who was absent on that day to appear in the online version scheduled to start from next week. The online test will be held only for the B.E/B.Tech courses, as the B Arch subject test was available only in the offline mode.

The online exam will be held twice daily and on multiple days, so candidates who want to appear for the exam will now have to register online at www.aieee.nic.in before May 5. Though the first online test will be held on May 7, the absentee candidates will not be able to choose that date option. Candidates can choose any one date from May 12, 19 and 26 but the CBSE will allot one based on availability.

Nagpur is a totally online centre for AIEEE but an overwhelming majority of candidates from the region had opted for the offline version. In Amravati, which was the nearest offline centre, almost 21,000 candidates appeared for the exam.

Across the country 10 lakh students had opted for the offline version while another 1.64 lakh chose the online version. When TOI spoke to CBSE officials they were unable to provide the exact number of absentees in the offline test. The central board has clarified that even after the applications from absentees are received, the details will be verified to ensure that no one is misusing the second chance being offered.

In Nagpur, preparations for the online exams are well underway but the number of centres and student enrolment figures are not being divulged. TOI tried to contact Beena Gokhale, who is the facilitator for Nagpur, but she did not respond to our calls or SMS.

Navneet Singh Tuli, who heads Guru Nanak Group of Institutions, said, "From the information I have, it seems about 7,000 students will be appearing for the online tests. My two online centres will have a capacity of 1200 students alone and all the preparations have been made."

Five states oppose common entrance engineering test

NEW DELHI: The government's plan to introduce a common national examination for undergraduate engineering courses across the country will have to be curtailed with the test applicable only for central technical institutions from next year as at least five states have objected to the proposal.

The states, including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, opposed the move and two others advocated more debate when the common test was discussed at the state education ministers' meeting on Wednesday.

In light of the meeting's deliberations, admissions to IIT, other Central government institutions and state engineering institutions that admit students based on AIEEE scores will be carried out in accordance with a merit list drawn up by the common national examination results with weightage for state boards.

Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Puducherry opposed the proposal, while Uttar Pradesh suggested that private institutions be brought on board as well. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh asked for wider consultation. The states have been keen to retain their state-level common entrance tests.

In the midst of the opposition from non-Congress states, the human resource development ministry received support from unexpected quarters with Gujarat expressing its approval for the plan.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the common test will be for the means for admission to central engineering institutes like IITs, and expressed the hope that states will also adopt the formula in coming years. There are, however, considerable reservations of including board exam weightages to tests to India's top technical schools like IITs that have previously conducted their own entrance exams.

Sibal said 11 boards at the Council of Boards of School Education in India (COBSE) meeting last week have "unanimously" supported the move. Four states - Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh - have already accepted CBSE-conducted AIEEE scores for admission to their institutes.

"The unanimous decision of the state education ministers today in passing the resolution was that we agreed in principle that there should be one test in 2013 for all students who want to seek admission to central engineering institutions," Sibal said.

The proposed entrance test which the HRD ministry has proposed to be named as Indian Science - Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET), is likely to be conducted in April or May next year and will have two parts - ISEET main and ISEET advance. The former will test the inherent intelligence of the student.

Education ministers of states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh among others also suggested including regional language along with English and Hindi.

"The exam will be conducted initially twice a year starting in April-May, 2013 and the ultimate aim is to conduct it thrice or four times. The score will be valid for two years."

A formula has been devised by the Indian Statistical Institute to equate the scores of different boards. The idea is to re-emphasize school education, do away with the stress of multiple examination and grey markets," added Sibal.

The entrance examination question papers will be prepared by the IITs and the exam will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. In the first year (2013) around 12 lakh candidates are expected to take the exam. States which will base its admissions on the common entrance test are Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand.