‘New pattern of questions in JEE Advanced a good move’

‘New pattern of questions in JEE Advanced a good move’

PUNE: While the new pattern of integer questions in JEE Advanced baffled many students this year, coaching class operators feel the inclusion of such difficult questions is a good move for preserving the sanctity of the IIT entrance examination.

They also pointed out there is no consistency or trend as to the difficulty level of the JEE Advanced paper, as is the case with the JEE Main.

The JEE Advanced 2018, held on May 20, was said to be tougher than last year’s, but simpler than the one in 2016, which is known as the toughest question paper till date.

Vaibhav Bakliwal of Bakliwal Tutorials said, “The integer type questions were replaced by questions which had to be answered up to 2 decimal places this year. Thus, the paper was more calculation-based. Also, the ‘match the following’ questions had a strange pattern this year. So, in order to not lose marks many students played safe while marking the answers here.”

Durgesh Mangeshkar of IIT Prashikshan Kendra said 48 questions in the paper were of numerical value. “From 2007 to 2017, the questions only had single-digit integer type answers. However, this year, the answers had up to two or three decimal places and could also be in negative. Thus the students could not use any guesswork, but had to calculate for the answer till the last step. Around 45 per cent of the paper had this pattern, which made the students find it quite lengthy,” Mangeshkar added.

He stated, “I feel this is actually a good pattern. From 1960 to 2005, IITs had subjective pattern. From 2006, when the machine-based grading began, the examinations were made more objective in nature. Now, bringing back the integer type questions certainly seems like a good move to bring only the best to the IITs.”

Many students might not be able to score full marks this year, making the examination less scoreable. Bakliwal stated that in interaction with his students, he found that the paper was of a moderate difficulty level. Physics was the easiest of the three subjects. Mathematics was lengthy and Chemistry tricky.

Mangeshkar said the new pattern, however, was not a surprise to the students. In the demo videos about the examination, the pattern was mentioned. But students might still have found it difficult to solve the questions under pressure during the examination.

Around 1,000 students in Pune answered JEE Advanced to crack entry into the IITs across the country. This is the first time that the examination was conducted entirely in CBT (Computer Based Test) Manner. While there were cases of technical faults causing delays in the examinations in cities like Bengaluru, no such incident happened in Pune.

Bakliwal said it was unnecessary asking the students to reach the examination centres more than an hour before the exam.

“Children were made to come to the centres at least 1:15 hours early and made to stand in long queues to get inside. The students were drained of energy by the time they entered. It’s not at all necessary,” Bakliwal added.

Enjoyed reading The Bridge Chronicle?
Your support motivates us to do better. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay updated with the latest stories.
You can also read on the go with our Android and iOS mobile app.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
The Bridge Chronicle
www.thebridgechronicle.com