Board Results or Entrance Tests - Who is the Ultimate Winner?

Students today are scoring at an all-time high in the CBSE board exams; scoring above 95 is no longer astonishing. But this cut throat competition and this race for marks does not end here. Competition gets even fiercer for 2,250 seats in engineering and other courses at institutes in Chandigarh.

Students themselves prefer to opt for the coaching of entrance examinations over studying only for the board exams. This phenomenon is quite common in Chandigarh where many students from Punjab enrol in coaching institutes as soon as they enter class 11. This has helped in the mushrooming of coaching institutes which have now grown into big businesses.  Preparation for entrance tests is an integral part of the process to get admissions in various professional courses.

Panjab University and some institutes of the city are done with conducting the entrance exams and the second round will begin later this month.

The University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) has also announced the entrance examination result for two of its courses — BA-LLB (honours) and B.Com-LLB (honours) with a capacity of 120 seats each. The admission forms will be available in the second week of June. Basis the counselling, the final list will be out by June end and admissions will start from the first week of July. For the purpose of admissions, entrance examination score as well as the board exam percentage will have an equal weightage.

“We have received thrice the number of applications for the 240 seats in UILS this year. Keeping in view the marks of students in higher secondary examination, merit will go up,” said Sangeeta Bhalla, Director, UILS.
 

Joint Engineering Admission

Admission to one architecture institute and four engineering colleges is being done through the CBSE conducted Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). For the admissions, the Joint Admission Committee (JAC) of these institutes will take into account the JEE examination score and Class 12 score. The admission website will be rolled out on July 6, and the CBSE will come out with the final ranking on July 7.

“Students will list their preferences in the admission forms. Basis the rankings in the JEE and preferences given by the students, a merit list will be prepared, which will be followed by three counselling sessions. In these sessions, students will opt for choices and will then be allotted seats,” said Sanjeev Kumar, professor in-charge of admissions at the PEC University of Technology. This process will be completed by mid-August.

In the words of US Shivhare, JAC in-charge and Chairperson, “This change in the admission policy has allowed more students to take the JEE exam. The merit improves when more students participate as they are keen on joining these colleges due to good placements and reputation. We’ll see the cut-offs spiking this year.”

Karanbeer Singh Dhillon, a third - year student of metallurgy engineering at the PEC University of Technology said, “With aggressive competition, students with good marks in both JEE and Class 12 would get a seat. The new system has a merit and is better as it gives a chance to those who did not go to coaching institutes. Leaving aside where the cut offs will end, the quality of students will definitely rise which will prove to be good for all.”

PEC has also increased its number of seats by 25%.