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Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination

The Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (popularly known as IIT-JEE or just JEE) is an annual college entrance examination in India. A total of fifteen colleges use JEE as a sole criterion for admission to their undergraduate programs. The fifteen colleges include the seven old and six new (2008) Indian Institutes of Technology, IT-BHU Varanasi, and ISM Dhanbad. Starting in 2007, newly established institutions such as Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Kolkata, Pune & Mohali, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), Raebarely Uttar Pradesh are also admitting students through the JEE (Extended Merit List). The exam is conducted by the various IITs by a policy of rotation. It is one of the toughest engineering entrance exams in the world with a success rate of around 1 in 45. Candidates who successfully pass the IIT-JEE can apply for admission to the BArch (Bachelor of Architecture), BDes (Bachelor of Design), BTech (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Masters of Technology) and Integrated MSc (Master of Sciences) courses in the various institutes. Achieving entrance into an IIT is often considered the pinnacle of achievement for a student of the sciences, and the IITs/IT-BHU/ISM attract most of the brightest students of the nation.

Of the 311,258 candidates who appeared in the examination conducted on April 13, 2008, 8,652 candidates have been declared qualified to seek admission, giving a selectivity of 1 in 36 overall, 1 in 45 for the 6,872 seats in IITs,IT-BHU and ISM and 1 in 56 for the IITs only.

Current examination format

JEE-2008 was conducted on April 13, 2008 retaining the same pattern as JEE-2007 containing Paper-I & Paper-II (JEE-2007 had two papers of three hours duration each. The two papers each contained maths, physics and chemistry sections (in previous years, there were separate maths, physics and chemistry papers, each of two hours' duration). The syllabus of the examination is based on topics covered by the CBSE Board Examination (AISSCE) and the ISC Board Examination , though all topics of the AISSCE and the ISC are not included in the JEE syllabus. The pattern of questions in JEE is deliberately variable so as to minimize the chance of students getting selected by cramming up the probable questions. Currently, the examination has objective type question paper for all the subjects and uses machine readable Optical mark recognition answer sheets.

Given the importance attached to the JEE by students all over India, the IITs follow a rigorous procedure when conducting it every year. The exam is set by the JEE Committee (consisting of a group of faculty members drawn from the admitting colleges) under the tightest security. Multiple sets of question papers are framed and the set that is to actually be used on the day of the exam is known to only about five individuals. In the past, the JEE has been noted for originality in its questions.

History

The JEE has evolved considerably from its initial pattern approximately 50 years back. Initially, there were 4 subjects in JEE, the English language paper being the additional subject. During the period from 2000 to 2005, the JEE also had a screening test in addition to the JEE main examination in order to reduce the load on the JEE main examination by screening only about 20,000 top candidates. In 1997, the JEE was conducted twice after the question paper was leaked in some centres.

In September 2005, an analysis group comprising of directors of all the IITs announced major reforms in JEE, implemented from 2006 onwards. The new test consists of a single objective test, replacing the earlier two-test system. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate in the qualifying examination of the XII^th standard organized by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum of 55% in aggregate in the Qualifying Examination.The introduction of only one stage objective exam instead of two stages and a subjective one has led to decline in quality of students who are selected. This can be well understood by the fact that over one hundred students failed in their Ist year B.Tech exams at IIT Kanpur alone.

In 2008, the director and the dean of IIT Madras called for revamping JEE, saying that the coaching institutes were "enabling many among the less-than-best students to crack the test and keeping girls from qualifying." They expressed concern that the present system did not allow for the 12 years of schooling to have a bearing on admissions into IITs.

According to the data released by the organizing committee of IIT-JEE, the children of medical professionals had the highest succcess rate in the IIT-JEE (for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008). They were followed by the children of engineers. The maximum number of students taking IIT-JEE are the children of government employees, but they had a much lower success rate.

Seats

The number of students taking this examination has increased substantially each year with the JEE-2008 registering about 311,258 candidates. The availability of seats in recent years is as given in table below:

Institute	Intake (2003)	Intake (2006)	Intake (2007)	Intake (2008)
IIT Bombay	554	574	574	648
IIT Delhi	552	553	553	626
IIT Guwahati	350	365	365	435
IIT Kanpur	456	555	541	608
IIT Kharagpur	659	895	874	988
IIT Madras	554	520	540	612
IIT Roorkee	546	616	746	884
New IIT's opened in 2008
IIT Bhuvaneshwar				120
IIT Gandhinagar				120
IIT Hyderabad				120
IIT Patna				120
IIT Punjab				120
IIT Rajasthan				120
Total (IIT's)	3571	4078	4193	5521
IT-BHU (Varanasi)	568	708	686	766
ISM Dhanbad	444	658	658	705
TOTAL	4583	5444	5537	6992

The age limit for appearing in IIT-JEE is 25 years. For candidates belonging to SC, ST and PD categories, the relaxed age limit is 30 years. Also, starting 2007, a candidate can take the JEE two times at the most. This has been done mainly to reduce stress on students and discourage the concept of "cram schools" — where students are made to memorize all types of possible exam questions. Furthermore, from 2007 on, students who are selected for admission to an IIT cannot attempt the examination again in the future. From 2008 six new IITs have been opened with 120 seats each increasing the total no.of seats to almost 7000.