Thousands of students who had put in their best efforts to realise their IIT dreams and appeared for the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination had not bargained for a double whammy.
Thousands of students who had put in their best efforts to realise their IIT dreams and appeared for the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) on Sunday had not bargained for a double whammy: a lengthy question paper that also demanded multiple calculations.
The outcome was palpable across the exam centres in the city.
Most students complained that they were unable to complete Paper I of the examination that tested their knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics. “The math questions were tougher than expected. I was quite confident of cracking the exam after attempting the mock tests. However, my confidence levels crashed after I saw the nerve-wracking questions. The paper was also very lengthy,” said Albin Aloysius, an IIT aspirant.
“I performed well in physics and chemistry, but math was relatively tough,” said Ajay Devadi, a student of University Visveswaraya College of Engineering.
“The number of questions in Paper I were increased this year. We had to answer 28 questions in one hour. Paper II had lesser number of questions, but they were tough,” said Yashas, another aspirant.
However, experts said that this year’s papers aimed at testing students’ time management skills. “Unlike the previous year when the papers were more application-based, the entrance exam this year tested the time management skills of aspirants. Many students found the math paper lengthy. And since it was the first paper and involved multiple calculations, they were unable to attempt the other questions in time,” said TN Suresh, faculty at BASE, a coaching institute.
The students said that the competitive exam, which was known for springing last-minute surprises, came up with changes in the marking scheme this year. “This year, negative marking has been reduced, which is quite helpful for us,” said Arjun Narayanan, a student of The Frank Anthony Public School.
However, a few students said they were unable to comprehend the new rules of negative marking easily.
“The marking scheme was not clearly explained. I did not understand the clause that said partial marks would be awarded for partially correct answers in Section II,” said Divya Venkatesh, an aspirant.
At National College, Basavanagudi, students were surprised to find printing errors in the objective response sheet (ORS). “The question numbers in the ORS did not match those in the question paper. However, the invigilators asked us to follow the pattern and gave us an extra 10 minutes,” said Chaitra R, a student of KLE PU College, Rajajinagar.
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