Wednesday, April 14, 2010

IITs Radical Idea: Board Exam Marks to be Given 70 % Weight


It takes a lot of guts to reject the old (but increasingly dysfunctional) way of life mode of admissions, and I commend the IIT Directors for this radical idea [thanks to Pradeepkumar for the e-mail alert]. We don't know the final shape of this idea (just raw marks will not work, so we'll need some sort of scaling or normalizing -- we just don't have those implementation-level details), but for the moment, let me just say that I like this proposal. I really, really like it.

The IITs and all other engineering schools may soon pick students based more on board examination marks than on entrance test performances, under testing reforms recommended by a panel of IIT directors.

The panel, appointed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, has recommended replacing the four-decade-old IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and myriad other engineering entrance examinations with a common test modelled on the US-based scholastic aptitude test (SAT).

The panel has suggested that the IITs accord a 70 per cent weightage to board examination scores in picking students [...]

5 Comments:

  1. Ankur Kulkarni said...

    Interesting the SAT-type test will be a test of logic and communication unlike JEE.

    I wonder, though, what the motivation behind this change is.

  2. Ravi Venkataraman said...

    Interesting idea. What will happen to the IIT coaching industry?

    How will one decide an All India Rank? Will the top ranks have the same cachet as in the old system?

  3. L said...

    Combined with an SAT type test, and if they consider percentile instead of marks%, it may turn out to be better than the mechanised learning that coaching classes put children through. Perhaps the SAT type test and exam marks should be 50-50.
    Does anyone think 'now school/inter boards will start inflating marks in order to boast that --% of our students get into IIT and get a higher star rating in their accreditation'?

  4. Unknown said...

    I don't think this is a good idea at all. We all know the fraud in board exams. Kids of all high profile people will get into the good schools. The poor people who are hard working and meritorius will suffer a lot.

  5. studentresources said...

    An interesting correlation between income and SAT scores - http://www.domesatreview.com/content/sat-test-demographics-income-and-ethnicity - it shows that for every $20k in family income, one's score is likely to increase 40 points.