The Central Government has confirmed the new format of common entrance exam for getting admissions in to IIT, NIT and IIIT, replacing the earlier test formats – AIEEE and IIT-JEE. The new test format consists of 3 main aspects –
- A mains exam
- An advance exam
- Certain weightage from class 12th board exam (after normalisation of marks)
Though the test format is same for all the centrally funded engineering institutes (NIT, IIT and IIIT), the rules for selection differ for the IITs and the other central institutes.
For IITs
A merit list considering 50% weightage from class 12th board exam (after normalisation of marks) and 50% marks from main test is prepared. And the top 50,000 students of the merit list are only eligible for taking the advanced test. And the final selection for admission in to IITs will depend only on the performance of the student in advanced test.
For admission into NITs and IIITs
The selection format adopted by non-IIT central institutes – 40% weightage of class 12th board exam (after normalisation of marks), 30% weightage for mains exam and 30% weightage for advance exam.
Though the process of filtering the students is different for these institutes, the counselling for IIT, NIT and IIIT will be done jointly and allotment of seats will be done together.
The test pattern for the mains exam will be multiple questions type paper. The paper will be set by JAB (Joint Admission Board), and other centrally funded institutions like NITs. Whereas, the test pattern of advanced test is not fixed and the paper will be set exclusively by JAB.
Though the Central Government has provided the flexibility to all the states to adopt the new format and determine their own relative weightages, this issue is still under consideration as there is varied response from different states regarding the format.