Engineering Admissions--A Roller coaster. Review on Successful Preparation for CET

FROM CENTRALISED TO DECENTRALISED TO CET

--Evolution of Engineering Admission Process

Two Years back life of a wanna-be engineer in Maharashtra was not that backbreaking. The times have changed and so has the admission process of engineering..but the question to be answered is that if it is for good or bad..Certainly for good and though changes some times hit you hard they are fundamental reason for evolution.

CIRCA 2002

Those were the times when the monarchial rule of the centralized Raj(read state government) existed. Every student had to get a form from the DTE(Director of Technical Board) and fill it and submit it in VJTI. Then the rounds would commence once the sorted list was displayed. By sorted I mean that the rankings would be displayed according to the PCM marks. And if PCM is same then the person having highest in maths would be leading followed by physics and chemistry. and if even these are same then they would consider your aggregate. And if even aggregate is same then guess what they consider your tenth standard marks?n god forbid but if even that is same then they take into account your age!

After this the general rounds start off and very lucky few get through in these. For the other students there are rounds which continue for 2 months and you have to keep going till you get an admission. This is not all it?s even the more difficult to get admission for a male student in open category to get admission. This is because the female students have a girl?s quota at least. Then there are numerous other quotas for various so called socially backward tribes and classes. If we no longer distinguish people based on his caste then why still do it in Education system.

Backward classes are no longer financially backward and no human is socially upper or lower so even the waiver in fees is unjustified. If we call our democracy as a social and secular one then every Indian should have EQUAL opportunities..nothing more nothing less. Then only we can make some sense to word ?social.?

So the aftermaths of this process are that students lose their substantial time in getting admission that their academics suffer during first semester and end up with KT?s. Also students having less score in PCM are forced to take admission to BSc courses as a backup. This process is very time consuming and inefficient and the only advantage of it was that being centralized it was comparatively convenient.

CIRCA 2003

The system wanted a change and it got it but the end product was a mess. Students had every grueling thing inherited from the previous year. And to add to miseries the process got de-centralized. Each college had its separate admission form and its different fee structure which had to be just approved before it could be implemented. The effect was immediate and resulted into exorbitant fee hike in private college. There was nothing like free seat and payment seat, only general and management. So irony of the situation was that a student scoring 98% in PCM and a student scoring 80% in PCM had to pay the same amount as per college. The fees ranged from 44000 to 80000. This also decreased the number of students seeking admission to engineering colleges and almost 12000 seats were left vacant in colleges all-round Maharashtra.

So this was nothing but a futile attempt in the process of evolution which rather leads to devolution and disappointment amongst student community because the deserving candidates couldn?t pursue engineering due to the hike in fees!

Back to PRESENT

This can be thought of the first right step in the process. Though it has loopholes and might require time to produce desirable outcomes it is reminiscent. Due to The delayed decision of Supreme Court all the students seeking admission to engineering will have to appear for CET(Common Entrance Exam) on 27th June,2004. Since this is first ever CET for engineering in Maharashtra and was declared late it is supposed to be simple. The questions will be of Multiple Choice type and CET will be scored out of 150 containing 150 questions. Since this is the first-time there will be no negative marking.

Also the questions will be based on the syllabus covered in 12th grade. All the questions that are printed after every chapter of Physics and Maths will be most likely included. So each chapter has importance. The CET offers totally 4700 seats in entire Maharashtra. Also since the efforts and importance given to the 12th grade examinations is almost life-taking for both students and parents and teachers. In order that these toils and the achievements are fruitful it is decided that rankings will be decided according to the marks obtained in 12th too and it will have 50% weight age.

This process is bit complex so a deeper insight in the same is essential. The marks obtained in Physics and Maths will b considered. Along with this the marks obtained either in Chemistry, Biology or Vocational Subjects like Electronics and Computer Science will be considered according to whichever has the highest score. So the final score will be out of 300 out of which 150 will be of CET and the remaining 150 from 12th grade.

For example if I scored in

1) CET : Maths(75) and Physics(50) then it will total up to 125.

2)12th grade: Maths(97), Physics(100) and out of optional subject if Electronics(190) is considered(assuming I scored highest in it)

But the problem is that vocational subject are out of 200 and biology is out of 100. So the score of Electronics will be halved(95) and then added to the previous score.

So my total will be (97+100+95)292 which will be halved again n added to CET score to get the final score.

So the final score will be(125+146) 271(pretty high! )out of 300.

So the CET is after all not that difficult. Students need to keep their fears aside of being first timers and have to study and give CET with full confidence and a relaxed mindset.

Though there are two sides of a coin, one has to have the perception to realize the third dimension of the coin(along the circumference) and accept it with full confidence and trust. It is expected that process will be improvised in years to come only to make it better. So finally Darwin?s theory implemented in Engineering! Amen