IIT Joint Admission Board approves the new Pattern of Entrance Examination

IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB)  has pproved the common entrance test for admission to the undergraduate programme for 2013 based on percentile ranking at a crucial meeting here. The JAB accepted the IIT council resolution in this regard passed on June 27, said sources.

The JAB meet followed approval of the resolution of the council, the highest decision making body of the IITs, by the IIT senates which examined the resolution albeit with some modifications over the last couple of weeks. The new format adopted by the IIT council comprises a two-tier system — a main and an advance test. Students clearing the advance test would be considered for admission provided they are among the top 20 percentile in their boards.

Sources said JAB is understood to have favoured subjective type questions for advance test in tune with the existing format and keeping in mind the 2012 pass-out students who have already appeared this year’s IIT-JEE and have another chance next year to crack the test.

The new format seeks to screen only about 1.50 lakh students for the advance test. IIT-Delhi along with IIT-Kanpur had earlier rejected the common entrance test under a proposed format, forcing the human resource development (HRD) Ministry to float a compromise formula which was adopted by the IIT council based on percentile ranking.