IIT JEE 2012 – THE LAST WEEK

IIT-JEE is less than a week away now and I can understand how the applicants must be feeling at this point of time. In the last 3 days, many students have come to me for advice regarding last minute preparations and strategies for IIT-JEE, hence this article.
Let me divide the next 7 days into three parts - (a) April 2 to April 6; (b) April 7; and (c) April 8 (the examination day) and advise accordingly.


For April 2 to April 6 :


The major time for preparation has already passed. The best any student (however prepared he is for the IIT-JEE) can do now is to utilize what he has already learnt till now to score maximum marks and increase his chances of qualifying. And to do that, one should refrain from studying new topics and focus on strengthening one’s strengths even further rather than working on the weaknesses. I am saying this because working on your strengths will give you confidence and help you score while working on your weaknesses will give you diffidence and might aid in your scoring below expectations.


During my interactions with students, many of them said that they had forgotten what they studied in Class XI and have no idea what to do now. Since there is so little time left, it is not possible to revise every bit of Class XI topics. So, what you can do is revise the results and important formulas of the topics and go through a couple of solved examples from each topic. Do not try to go through all the solved examples or exercise questions because that could tense you, confuse you and leave you with no time to concentrate on things that are more important from the examination point of view. Remember one thing, you will never fail because you would have forgotten what you had studied during your preparations. Trust me, your knowledge will not betray you. That’s the beauty of this examination.


We are often told that high risks yield high returns. Well in IIT-JEE, the case is a little different. In each of the three courses – Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, there are a few topics that are low risk but highly rewarding. Moreover, questions from these topics form a major percentage of the total questions asked. Some of these topics are :


Mathematics: Coordinate Geometry, Vectors & 3-D Geometry, Trigonometry, Area under Curves (Definite Integrals)


Physics: Heat, Electrostat, Current and Magnetism, Modern, Sound


Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Radioactivity, Thermodynamics


Try devoting more time to revising the above topics (but do not do so if these topics have not been your strengths). If you have studied nicely the topics I just mentioned, you can, in all probability, solve any question asked in IIT-JEE on these topics whereas, if you take the case of other topics like Limits, Continuity and Differentiability, Functions, Probability, Permutations & Combinations, Mechanics, Ionic Equilibrium, etc., you might not be able to solve the questions on these tricky topics during the examination even if you are an IIT-JEE Guru (except Prof. K. C. Sinha of Mathematics and Dr. H. C. Verma of Physics; I have seen them solve the entire three hour IIT-JEE paperscorrectly in front of me within an hour).


Another question that was asked by many students was whether they should solve past 35 years questions of IIT-JEE or not. I would say a big ‘No’ to it. In the last two years of your preparations, you might have unknowingly solved many previous year IIT-JEE questions because many study packages and text-books have those questions with data changed. I would suggest you practice IIT-JEE questions for the past 5 years, nothing more than that keeping in mind the time you have left now.


For those of you who have enrolled for any Crash Course for IIT-JEE at your Coaching Institutes of choice, take it easy now. Do not try to gobble everything up at the last moment. Take in only that, which helps you improve your strengths. Just do not stress yourself too much because that can curdle your entire two-year preparation. If you are mentally tired, you might even falter in questions on topics that are your strengths.


For April 7 :


For an examination like IIT-JEE, I would recommend you do NOT study on this day. Believe me, you will thank me after the examination if you follow it because you would have solved more questions by not studying on this day than you would have by studying on this very day. Stay away from your confused friends who might call you up to discuss any question. The same applies to your relatives and well-wishers asking about your IIT-JEE preparations. Try to relax and plan your strategy for the next day. Visit your examination center to get its exact location so that you do not panic right before your examination searching for your center. Last but not the least – Go to bed early and sleep well!!!


For April 8 :


I know you must be dead nervous on this day but nervousness actually helps to bring out the best in you. So, it’s ok to be nervous. It just shows you are serious about your examination. If you know how to meditate, do so in the morning. If you don’t know it, close your eyes and take deep breaths for 10 minutes. This should calm you down.


Reach your center early. Just before you start your examination, revise your strategies. Talking about examination strategies let me give you an idea. In IIT-JEE papers, all the three subjects will be in the same paper. Start with the subject you are most confident in. Now for each subject that you start, I would suggest you start with the low risk, high reward topics I mentioned earlier in the article. Increase in confidence at the start is half the battle won.


Time management during examination is one of the primary reasons why good students fail to qualify IIT-JEE. For a three hour paper, one of the time management strategies that held me in good stead during my IIT-JEE is :


Subject 1 – 50 minutes


Subject 2 – 50 minutes


Subject 3 – 50 minutes


This would be done to ensure I clear the cut-offs (set by myself usually close to 30% - 35%) in each subject. The remaining 30 minutes of time would be allocated to the subject I am the strongest in and/or the subject in which the questions are easier for me in the examination (you can make that out during the first 150 minutes), to help me climb the rankings. Even 10 additional marks can better your rank by more than 100. One thing to note here is that if I feel I have not been able to clear the cut-off in any subject, I would actually go for that subject (regardless of anything) in the last 30 minutes because the first thing to ensure is clearing the cut-offs and then improving your ranking.


For filling up the OMR (answer) sheet, I would suggest you solve 10 questions, fill up the OMR; solve another 10 questions, fill up the OMR, and so on. Do not leave filling up the OMR sheet to the last 5 – 10 minutes.


Do not get trapped in your ego or foolishness and keep solving a question that is not ready to budge, thinking how the bloody question dared not to get solved by you or thinking that you have already given the question 15 minutes of time and a couple of more minutes MIGHT help you solve it. Leave it and move ahead. Know which questions to let go of at the right time.


There will be a gap of about 2 hours between Papers I and II. Avoid discussing Paper I and going through formulas and results during this interval.


To wrap up my gyan, read the examination instructions carefully and say to yourself, “I will do the best I can and I will qualify this examination because if I can’t, nobody else can.” Know one thing for sure, if the paper is difficult, it is difficult for everyone. So, relax. Also know that if the paper is easy, it is easy for everyone. So, in such a case, work faster. During the examination, if you get too tensed, take deep breaths and drink some water. It helps !


I have tried my best to rest the turmoil in your head but if there are still confusions or doubts regarding your last minute preparations, feel free to ask me on www.facebook.com/eduwiser or www.facebook.com/abhishekchandra.v


As a student, on one hand, so many questions would be cropping up in your head and you must be wishing someone could answer them to your satisfaction. On the other hand, your coaching institute counselors, teachers, parents, elder brothers and sisters, etc. would be giving you their piece of mind as answers to your questions. Do not follow anyone or even me blindly but, “Suno sab ki, karo khud ki (listen to everyone but do what you think is right).”

Do We Need Regional Engineering Entrance Examinations ???

While everyone has been discussing whether or not we need the ISEET (chances are that ISEET will be called JEE – Joint Entrance Examination), let us turn the issue around and ask ourselves whether or not we need the current regional engineering entrance examinations. The answer to this question will help us in approaching the discussion from a different point of view and might hopefully guide us to decide for the better.

Let us first think from the point of view of Regional Colleges. Three important questions to ask are - What do regional engineering entrance examinations test in candidates? What other purposes do these regional examinations serve? Will the same purposes be served with the common ISEET?

All the regional engineering entrance examinations are primarily based on Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Though the syllabus of these three courses for each regional engineering entrance examination is a little different from the other, all these examinations test advance skills with basic knowledge of students in the three courses. These examinations also test the speed as well as quick judgment (which questions to leave and which ones to attempt along with time management while writing the examination) of the applicants. Now, if these regional examinations are replaced by a common test like ISEET that tests the same qualities, it should not make much of a difference.This makes us infer that with the advent of ISEET, we can safely bid adieu to regional examinations without affecting the quality of selection criteria and students entering the engineering colleges.

One other purpose that regional examinations purportedly serve for the respective regional college is maintaining a distinguished brand of the college and ensuring control of the college over all its affairs including entrance examinations. Having the college's own entrance examination conveys to the masses that the college is capable enough of conducting its own entrance examination. But to me, the attributes that would differentiate the brand of any regional college more and would prove its capabilities would be the level of research carried out and papers published, quality of Professors and quality of admitted students.The common ISEET will relieve the regional colleges of the time and energy - consuming headache of conducting examinations, thus ensuring that these regional colleges focus more on the core areas that make an institution stand out from the rest.Inevitable costs of conducting examinations could then be avoided and channelized into other improvement areas for the college. This point again tilts the scale against the need of regional examinations.

Regional colleges usually have reservations as high as 80% for applicants of the respective state and the balance is for Rest of India. Apart from these percentages, there are Management Quota Seats that the colleges fill up with candidates who give huge sums of money as donations. Without regional examinations (i. e. with ISEET) too, the regional colleges could still have the same reservation percentages and be totally fine. The only change that will happen(and that too in the positive sense) in this case would be the increase in diversity of students from Rest of India coming to regional colleges. This point again leads us to question the need of regional examinations.

Students are the future of India. No article or discussion can be complete without thinking from their point of view.

The low percentage of seats allotted for Rest of India often acts as a deterrent for many talented students who decide against taking the regional college examinations of some states that have reputed colleges.Students have to spend a lot of money traveling to the respective states to take examinations and compete for as low as 20% of seats. For example, VJTI Mumbai is a great college but many aspirants from North India do not even fill up its entrance examination form due to this very reason. If there are no regional examinations, there will be ISEET and when there will be ISEET, the deterrence will be somewhat diluted because the students will not have to do anything extra to fight for the 20% seats. They would just have to fill up the application forms. Quite often, the date of regional examination of one state is in close vicinity of the examination date of some other state, thus limiting the students' options with respect to colleges.Without separate regional examinations, the students will have broader options both in terms of colleges and in terms of specializations (Computer Science, Electronics, Mechanical, etc.). They will also be able to take admission in the course of their interest.

Needless to mention, students will save a lot financially by not traveling to each state to take its regional examination. The students and their parents will of course have to shell out money to travel for the Counseling sessions at different regional colleges after the examination results but they would have to incur these costs even with regional examinations in place.

Added to all of the above, the students will not have to bother to prepare separately for each regional examination, which again will relieve them.

We can therefore conclude that a common exam like ISEET will make the regional engineering entrance examinations redundant. In fact, without regional examinations,regional colleges, students and their parents would actually be better off.

As I finish this article, there are two major concerns rocking my mind. One, if only ISEET could be conducted multiple times a year(like SAT, GRE, GMAT, etc.),it would have been a win-win decision (because if a student falls ill or is not able to take the ISEET on the single ISEET date due to some unavoidable circumstances, her/his life will be ruined). Two, with weightage also given to Class XII Board Examination marks, the pressure on students will increase because now they will have to worry about their Board Examinations as well as ISEET (Earlier, students could score 65 – 70% in Class XII Board Examinations and still end up in a good college by scoring well in the entrance examinations).

With fingers crossed, I just hope my article reaches the Government and they take corrective actions to help the future of India.

ISEET to benefit Coaching Institutes !

News: "ISEET, the Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test will be successor to the JEE and AIEEE. This new SAT-style exam will come into force in 2013. It will do away with multiple entrance examinations and reduce the stress levels of students. ISEET will have two parts, Main and Advance, each of three hours duration. Both tests will be given on the same day, between 10 am and 5 pm. ISEET 2013 will be held in either April or May.

ISEET will be objective-type exam and will test comprehension, critical thinking and logical reasoning. Its advance level will test problem-solving ability in basic science subjects. Both the tests together will indicate a candidate's scholastic level and aptitude for science and engineering."

Despite severe opposition from the IIT Alumni Network, one of the world's most dreaded examinations, IIT-JEE has somewhat been done away with and so have numerous other regional and national level engineering entrance examinations in India. For admission to IITs and NITs, about 40% weightage will be given to Class XII Board Examination marks and the remaining 60% weightage will be assigned to the ISEET (the common test that will replace all engineering entrance examinations). For Regional Engineering Colleges, the corresponding State can play with the weightage to the same components but the amplitude of variation will not be much. Whether or not this move by HRD Ministry is correct does not matter anymore. What does matter now is how the landscape would change for the parties involved – Coaching Institutions, Students, IITs, Schools, Publishers, etc.

Since the objective of this move by the HRD Ministry was mainly to squeeze Coaching Institutes out of business, let me limit the scope of this article to the effect of this change on Coaching Institutes.

Whenever we talk about Coaching Institutes, the first thing that strikes our mind is Kota. Each year, almost a lakh aspiring students from across the country go to Kota for their IIT-JEE preparation at Coaching Institutes like Bansal Classes, ALLEN, etc. Students start taking admission tests for these institutes even before their Class X Board Examinations. Students who get admission to any of the institutes automatically get admission to a school with which that particular institute has a tie-up. The student is not required to go to school regularly. She/he instead attends classes at the Coaching Institute. At the end of 2 years, the student just has to take the Board Examinations under the name of her/his school. If you go through the data of Class XII Board Examination marks of students preparing for IIT-JEE at Kota, you will find majority of students getting percentages not too far from the cut-off of 60% required to take IIT-JEE. This is because the focus at such institutes is always on the Engineering Entrance Examinations – be it IIT-JEE, AIEEE or any other.

The case discussed above is the same across the country at institutes where there are more than 2000 students enrolled, for example FIITJEE – New Delhi, K. C. Sinha Classes – New Delhi, Srijan Classes – Patna, JRS - Varanasi, Narayana Hyderabad, etc.

For smaller institutes and institutes that do not have tie-ups with schools, if students want to study at their center, they take admission to a school that does not have strict minimum attendance criterion (Government schools) or they juggle with their school classes and institute classes (I have done this jugglery in my time to qualify IIT-JEE and score among the toppers in Board Examination in the same year and trust me, it gets very difficult to maintain sanity).

To study the effects of the merger of all examinations into one ISEET on Coaching Institutes, let us divide the engineering admission evaluation from 2013 in two parts – (1) ISEET, (2) Class XII Board Examinations.

Coaching Institutes have nothing to worry as far as the ISEET is concerned. To help students rein ISEET, schools are not currently adequately equipped. I am not saying that schools do not have talented teachers. They do but their number is less and their mindset is tuned to Board Examinations rather than Competitive Engineering Entrance Examinations like IIT-JEE, AIEEE (until this year) or ISEET (from next year onwards). Schools also do not have sufficient time to groom the students for ISEET due to limited number of hours each day with holidays and vacations around the year unlike Coaching Institutes that can be comparatively more flexible in the number of hours of study, holidays and vacations. It is not even worth talking about the state of Government schools where majority of the low-income group people send their kids. At these schools, both the quality and attendance of the teachers are pathetic thus leaving no option to such kids other than relying on Coaching Institutes to enlighten their career.

The ISEET will be a one-day affair (or a two-day affair if the candidate chooses to use both of his maximum of two attempts at ISEET) that will decide the future of the aspiring students. Earlier, the risks were diversified as there were separate examinations for different Engineering colleges and not, just one combined test. With such risks involved from next year onwards, no student or parent would ever take a chance by not opting for a Coaching Institute.

So, Coaching Institutes will now become a must for students contrary to what the HRD Ministry and the IIT Council actually wanted. The only option available to students is to go to these institutes. Even poor parents would now have to shell out their entire life's savings to send their kids to these Institutes. The market size of Coaching Institutes is hence, expected to increase.

The challenge for Coaching Institutes will however be to predict the new examination pattern and teach accordingly and this is going to be a big problem for them. There will be some chaos about the new pattern of examination until the examination is first conducted in 2013 or until IITs publish a sample paper before 2013. Therefore, a lot of students might be misguided this year. Keeping this in mind, for next one year, more students will look to enroll at institutes that have bigger and reputed brand names like FIITJEE, K. C. Sinha Classes – New Delhi, Srijan Classes – Patna, etc.

The other significant effect would be an increase in tie-ups of institutes with schools and vice versa. In case of smaller institutes, the institute teachers might go to the school to conduct classes on behalf of the institute, especially for ISEET.

With 40% weightage being assigned to Class XII Board Examination marks, the Coaching Institutes will now modify their approach a bit and also start teaching for the Class XII Board Examinations. They will have to manage time more efficiently to cover the +2 portion for the students. They will also have to increase the number of hours of study at their center, which in turn would increase their pricing (tuition fees).

For the students to score high in their Class XII Board Examinations, the institutes will also now hire teachers for English, Hindi, Computers, Economics, etc. as opposed to having teachers only for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry currently. This will increase the cost to the institutes again leading to an increase in fees for the students. The institutes will however keep an option for students to not opt for the Board Examination preparation at their center.

To cater to students going to schools affiliated to different boards (CBSE, ICSE, State Boards), the coaching institutes will have to make separate batches for each Board as there is a difference in the syllabi of Boards.

I have been to quite a few villages and small towns where if you pay the School Principal and/or invigilator a good amount, he will arrange for a separate room for your kid to take Board Examinations with text-books open. Even after examinations, I have heard influential people paying hefty sum of money to the teachers who correct the examination papers (and this happens mostly in case of State Board affiliated schools) to manipulate the marks. Now, Coaching Institutes and also common people would be paying huge amounts to the School Principals and/or invigilators for their kids to score more in their Board Examinations illegally.

The worst part of the current move by HRD Ministry is that the Coaching industry will become even more fragmented. More coaching institutes will open now, even those that would not be capable of teaching IIT level would open up their centers and claim to be training institutes for admission to IITs. The move will also prove a blessing for school teachers who would encourage their students to enroll for private tuition with them.

As far as I think, in a few years, the ISEET will go online. So, institutes should start strategizing right away in that direction. Last but not the least, the Coaching Institutes will also start diversifying their focus to other competitive examinations like the entrance examinations for the Medical Colleges.

What also needs mention is that it does not matter how hard the HRD Ministry tries to eliminate Coaching Institutes, these institutes will always be there. Even if one changes the admission criteria for IITs and other Engineering Colleges to be something as basic as tying one's shoelace, the Coaching Institutes will still be there preparing students to tie their shoelace in the most innovative way.

In today's world, it's always "survival of the fittest" and in the case at hand, I have to say that the Coaching Institutes (and not our schools) will prove the fittest.

IIT-JEE abolished from 2013 - for better or for worse???

On September 15, 2011 at around 0700 hours, I received a call from the Director of a reputed Coaching Institute for IIT-JEE, “Abhishek Sir, sorry to disturb you so early in the morning but I was so tensed, I had to call you up. Have you heard about IIT-JEE and other Engineering Entrance Examinations getting abolished from 2013? We are ruined. I have no idea what we should do now.”

“Such issue had been brought up a year ago too by Mr. Kapil Sibal and the IITs had declined. This time too, the IITs will reject it. I am sure this is a proposal that will need approval of other parties involved. Let me have a look at the news and call you back. Until then, do not worry,” I replied.

“Yes, it is a proposal and I hope it gets rejected. I will wait for your call. Please call as soon as you read the news,” he said.

News :

“IIT Council on September 14, 2011 decided to have a common entrance test for IITs/NITs, state government-run and private engineering colleges throughout the country from 2013. It also decided to go in for a complicated fee hike structure. But there is a catch -- both the decisions are subject to approval from the state governments and the finance ministry. In case it does not meet the states' approval, only IITs/NITs – under the central government – would have a common entrance test.”

When I read the news (as quoted in italics above), I was shocked! This sure is a proposal that needed approval of State Governments and the Finance Ministry. But even if the proposal is declined by any one or both the concerned parties, IIT-JEE is sure to go down the drains and there would be a common aptitude test for admission into IITs and other Engineering Colleges. Weightage will also be given to Class 12th Board Examination marks. The final list for selection into IITs and other Engineering Colleges will be drawn on the basis of the common aptitude test score and Class 12th Board Examination marks. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Kapil Sibal with the Directors of all IITs which meant that the proposal was from Mr. Sibal and IITs agreed to a common entrance test.

The next thought was how students, coaching institutes, IITs would be affected as a result of eliminating IIT-JEE and having one exam for all Engineering Colleges.

For students, the decision is more negative than positive. Let’s see the positive points first.

The positive for students is that they will just have to take one examination. They will have to study less and not need to work too hard. Board examinations are such that 2 months of study will be sufficient to score top marks (I know I had studied for just 15 days for my Board Examinations and still stood 3rd in my State).

There are however umpteen number of negatives.

In Board examinations, the difference in marks obtained is not much among students. Scoring high marks in these exams is not that difficult. There is nothing special in these exams. The same questions in the same pattern are repeated. These exams are there to test Rote Learning rather than Actual Learning. Even an average student can get more than 90% easily. Now, where will the difference in marks come? You guessed it right – the common aptitude test score.

The aptitude test will not be of more than 3 hour duration. So, for students, it will be a matter of 3 hours that will decide their career. If any student falls ill or has not been able to sleep nicely the night before the exam or is having a bad day on the day of the exam, his career will get ruined. Earlier, the risks for students were diversified. If a bright student could not do well in one entrance examination, he could do well in another and still end up in a reputed college.

Mr. Sibal and the IIT Directors thought it was a financial burden on the students’ parents since the student had to apply to many entrance examinations. Well, I wish Mr. Sibal had cared to conduct a survey among the school students’ parents and tried to explore whether that really was a financial burden or not. The cost of application of Engineering Colleges are minimal and the parents will always be willing to pay that much to avoid the risk he is imposing upon them by having a common test.

Mr. Sibal has been very concerned about the stress levels of students. [That is the reason why Grading System was introduced for Higher Secondary Examination (Class 10 Board Examination) because of which several students this year with 10 GPA could not get admission in Class 11th at top schools because several hundred others had the same perfect GPA.]

There are so many suicides happening because of this. He thinks the stress levels would decrease as a result of this change. To further reduce stress levels in people, he might also think about BANNING marriages in India because the stress levels are so high in married couples that quite a few of them have committed suicide and several others are on the verge of it. Also BAN employment because majority of people have increased stress levels because of their job.

What Mr. Sibal does not realize is that he is actually weakening the current generation of India. When these students grow up with minimal stress, I wonder how they are going to cope with the serious stresses that the world will present them with. The suicide cases might increase at IITs because students who have faced so little stress before getting into IITs might not be able to cope with the rigorous curriculum of IITs (where we are often required to take 7-8 tests in just 2 days). IIT-JEE and other Engineering Entrance Examinations have been there for decades. So many of us took the stress of these examinations and the-then curriculum as a result of which we are mentally tough and ready for any level of stress. Do not make our current generation “Phool-kumaris”.

The common aptitude test is a curse for students weak in language. Such tests are primarily language based in which misinterpreting a word or a phrase in a question can result in a wrong answer. If you notice, majority of students in villages and small towns are weak in language and hence they will be at a major disadvantage.

Many deserving students might get marks in their Board Exams lower than those of below-average students with rich parents.

I have been to quite a few villages and small towns where if you pay the School Principal and/or invigilator a good amount, he will arrange for a separate room for your kid to take Board Examinations with text-books open. Now, more people (even Coaching Institutes) would be paying huge amounts to the School Principals and/or invigilators for their kids. Corruption therefore, would increase to higher levels. Mr. Sibal did nothing to support Shri Anna Hazare to eradicate corruption but he is doing lots to increase corruption.

With this proposal, Mr. Sibal wanted to put an end to Coaching Institutes as they were extracting a lot of money from students’ parents. While rich people could afford sending their kids to these institutes, poor people especially those living in villages and small towns could not. So, it was not fair for these poor people. But had Mr. Sibal thought a little deeper, his assumptions and conclusions would have been different.

First, the schools in India never teach anything related to the aptitude tests nor is there any aptitude course planned for future. This means that students will flock to Coaching Institutes for guidance. For example, you see Coaching Institutes like TIME, Career Launcher, IMS, etc. for CAT (MBA) earning millions to provide coaching for CAT’s aptitude and verbal tests. Even now, does he think Coaching Institutes will go out of business?

Second, now the school teachers will also start their private tuitions because Board Exams will become important. How will he stop them? Does he have any regulations or restrictions in place?

Third, has he first ensured a proper school education in Government Schools? Does he have any idea about the quality and attendance of school teachers in villages and small towns? Both are pathetic. So, how does he think students will study for their Board Exams seriously now? Obviously, they would need the support of Coaching Institutes that will now modify their approach a little and start teaching for Board Examinations.

My point in conveying the above is that however hard Mr. Sibal or IIT Directors (or whoever for that matter) try to eliminate Coaching Institutes, these institutes will always be there. Even if one changes the admission criteria for IITs and other Engineering Colleges to be something as basic as tying one’s shoelace, the Coaching Institutes will still be there preparing students to tie their shoelace in the most innovative way.

Why the hell then, is Mr. Sibal trying to go against these Coaching Institutes? Let them earn and pay taxes to the Government. If there is fungus on his neck, does he cut his neck off or try to cure just the fungus? If his concern was to reduce financial burden on the poor caused by these institutes, he could have imposed restrictions on the fees charged by these Institutes. He could have invested his time in coming up with regulations in the Coaching Industry rather than unsuccessfully trying to eliminate the Coaching Industry as a whole. Instead, why doesn’t he invest his energy in eradicating prostitution? Is that more noble an industry than the Coaching one? Or he fears his rich friends might not have company at night if prostitution is eradicated?

A year ago, Mr. Sibal had tried to introduce the criterion of minimum 80% in Board Examinations to qualify for admission into IITs. That proposal was rejected by IIT Directors. With the current proposal, the minimum 80% (or even more) criterion will tacitly be imposed upon students. I do not understand why the IIT Directors could not read between the lines this time.

I would be wrong if I said that the Coaching industry will be unaffected. As I said earlier, the Coaching Institutes will start coaching students for their Board Examinations and the aptitude test. The teachers in current Coaching Institutes get handsome pay package because of their superior level of understanding of concepts. With the level of difficulty reduced (due to the possible introduction of weightage on Board Examinations and a common aptitude test), there will be an increase in supply of teachers and hence the pay packages will see a decline. Mathematics teachers stand to gain the most as aptitude tests need superior Math skills. Even school teachers will now open Coaching Institutes to teach students of their school and earn some extra money which means there will now be a Coaching Institute at every corner. In a nut shell, the current major Coaching Institutes will decrease in size and scale, and many new ones will open (who might not even register their institutes with the Government or pay taxes). The industry will become even more fragmented leading to many problems (tax loss being one of them).

For IITs, their brand is going to get diluted. I have travelled across the world and worked in international teams. People looked at me with respect just because I had the tag of IIT on me. No IIT alumnus would refute that IIT is an exclusive brand which Mr. Sibal is relentlessly trying to dilute (may be because he could not qualify IIT-JEE). IIT-JEE is considered one of the toughest in the world and dreaded by most. That is why only the best make it to IITs. With IIT-JEE possibly getting abolished, I have my doubts over the quality of new IIT Alumni.

At this point of time, I can only advise the IITs to conduct separate subject tests and use the aptitude test to screen students or think of something better. The IIT Alumni Association should also be involved in the decision-making. And all this should be done before it’s too late. A brand takes years to build but only a couple of months to get ruined. A brand like IIT has been flying like an eagle high in the sky. Time to protect it before a couple of morons force it down grovelling in the ground.