Now Neet, JEE twice a year

HYDERABAD: The JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Mains and Neet (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test), two of the most competitive exams in the country, will be held twice a year by the National Testing Agency (NTA), Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Saturday.  JEE Mains will be held in January and April and Neet in February and May. 

The best score in the two attempts will be used during admission. The syllabus, question formats, language and fees for the exams would not be changed. IITs would continue to conduct Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced exam, Mr Javadekar said.  The decision to conduct two tests for JEE (Mains) and Neet has been taken to reduce stress on lakhs of students. Moreover students will get adequate time and opportunity to prepare for the tests. 

It will also guarantee standardised difficulty level and high reliability from the examination process.  The NTA will also hold the National Eligibility Test (NET) in December for admission into higher educational institutions. It will also conduct the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT), Mr Javadekar said. The decision to conduct two tests has been welcomed by many students and alumnae of premier institutions but evoked mixed response from experts. 

While entrance tests for the 2018-19 session were held earlier this year, the exams might be conducted again in December. IIT-Kanpur, that conducted the JEE earlier this year, will have the same responsibility for the December exam as well. Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi from IIT Kanpur says that while it was a good step, there were grey areas. “More details such as how we select students for the JEE Advanced, how will we compare the JEE scores and other points need to be clarified.” He said the mains and advanced were completely independent of each other. “It will definitely reduce the stress of students and if we create a transparent process it will be a good decision,” Prof. Sanghi said.

Prof. G.V.K. Reddy of Vardhaman College of Engineering welcomed the announcement, saying it would allow students to pace their preparation. “Since National Testing Agency will conduct JEE and Neet going forward, any bias towards a particular syllabi will be eliminated thus level playing field for everyone.” The National Testing Agency (NTA) will be the Centre's one-point autonomous agency will be responsible for conducting all entrance examinations  thus relieving educational bodies like CBSE, AICTE and others of their exam conducting duties. JEE (Mains) and Neet were conducted by CBSE till this academic year.

Mr Achuth Menon Chanayil, an alumni of IIT Roorkee, said, “Conducting competitive exams will eliminate the concept of D-Day, allowing students to write the exam with reduced stress. It is also an alternative to take the exam, specifically JEE, outside of the busy board exam period from March-June.” He said students could use this opportunity to improve their scores as they can identify their weak and strong areas and prepare accordingly.

“With this step, our exam schedule will match the ones in western countries (such as GRE, GMAT) which provides the students with a stress-free, independent forum to write these exams,” Mr Chanayil said. The agency will have IT experts to conduct the tests online. “There were very few problems this year. However we need to check the composition of the results. It has been analysed that fewer students from rural areas have qualified this year. So we need to figure out how to provide online coaching and give them ample time to rehearse for online tests,” said Prof. Sanghi of IIT Kanpur.

Mr Raghuram Kumar, a Neet aspirant, said, “Coaching classes will have to set their schedules. The December attempt would mean lesser time for preparation and more repeaters might opt for it however students should be made to write both attempts for practice. I believe it is a good step as I have many seniors who fell sick and who couldn't perform to their best during the examination.” The NTA will be given '25 crore to begin with until it becomes financially independent. The setting up of the same has been lauded so that other bodies such as CBSE are not overburdened with conducting examinations which was cited as one of the main reasons for conducting the NET exam only once a year as opposed to twice as earlier.