Soon you may get to appear for JEE on mobile phones
REPORT SAYS IT WILL EASE POSTEXAM OPERATIONS; ALSO PITCHES FOR 3 PAPERS OF 2HOUR DURATION TO REPLACE THE TWO PAPERS USED NOW
A panel formed to look at ways of reforming the existing JEE Advanced exam has suggested conducting the exam online, even through mobile phones if the need be.
The report of the committee was tabled in the recently held meeting of Joint Admission Board (JAB) and will also feature in the IIT council meeting on Friday.
JEE Advanced is the entrance exam for getting admission to the prestigious IITs. Over two lakh students take the exam every year.
The report points out that due to the lack of penetration of computers and the prevalence of mobile phones in rural India conducting an examination with mobile phones could be the way forward.
It also points out that computer adaptive tests rather than computer administered tests could be considered as equivalence, an issue which is also well documented.
"The report was tabled and discussed but it was not approved. There are a number of issues that require greater discussion. It will be taken up again,” said a member of the committee who did not wish to be named.
A committee was constituted by JAB to look into various aspects of JEE Advanced and suggest measures for reform; the report of the committee was discussed in the last meeting.
In addition to this, the committee has also suggested that three papers of two-hour duration for each subject in place of the present pattern of two papers containing all three subjects.
From a candidate perspective it was more natural to work at a stretch on a subject rather than switch between subjects, the report said.
It also points to the logistical ease and simpler post-exam operation as the key advantages of conducting an online examination.
However, certain drawbacks were also discussed including computer awareness of test takers being poor.
“The infrastructure available presently requires the conduct of the online exam in multiple sessions. Establishing equivalence of the papers used in the different sessions is an unsolved problem,” said a source.