Becoming an engineer continues to be the dream of many students in our country. And everyone knows that the best place to get an engineering degree is any of the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology).

But, preparing for competitive examinations, especially the IIT-JEE, is not easy and requires very strong fundamentals. The students who put in a lot of hard work can come under a lot of stress, especially those under heavy parental pressure.

The competition is high as the seats are limited and the aspirants too many. Though board examinations and competitive exams such as IIT-JEE have very similar course content, there is a fundamental difference in the way one has to approach these tests.

No changes

Around 4.7 lakh students appeared for the entrance exams in 1,026 centres across the country this year. This is up from 3.9 lakh students who appeared for the examination last year. This year, there are 10,000 seats in the IITs, an increase of 2,000 seats compared to last year. The examination was conducted in two three-hour sessions and tested the skills of students in Physics, Chemistry and Maths.

There was no significant change in the question paper pattern but there were some changes in the marking scheme.

There was less negative marking in this year's question papers. “The marking scheme was better this time but, the question paper was lengthy,” said Anirudh Kurup, a student of DPS North, whose ambition is to become an aerospace engineer.

“In the multiple correct choice-type questions in which there can be more than one correct answer, this year one would get some marks even if one marked just one correct answer,'' he said. Last year all the correct answers had to be marked in order to get marks.

There was some problem in the OMR (answer) sheets but the students were told about it before the exam started. “Some questions in Maths and Physics were interchanged but that was no problem because we were told about it and were easily identifiable,” said Sukeerti Vardarajan, who studied in KV DRDO school. She said that Maths was the toughest and Chemistry was the easiest. She said that she did not hope to clear the exams and added, “I did not have much expectation. I gave the exam to get some exposure for the AIEEE exams.”

“The Maths part was challenging and the rest was easy,” said Anirudh Chitradurga of MES College, Malleswaram. He watched TV, listened to music and hung out with friends to relax while preparing for the IIT-JEE, he said.

Teachers' views

“The exam was of a moderate difficulty level. The Physics paper in the first part was comparatively lengthier than the second,'' said Balakrishna Hegde, who teaches Physics at a coaching institute in the city which provides training for IIT- JEE and other professional entrance exams. “Overall, 20 per cent were difficult questions, 20 per cent were easy and rest were moderate. A well prepared student could score well.''

T.N. Suresh, who teaches Maths at a coaching centre, said, “Maths exam was tough, time management was difficult and a lot of speed and computational skills were required.” The amount of calculation involved for each question was very high, he added.

“The questions asked in Chemistry were of the easy to moderate level, especially the first part which had many easy questions,” said U.S. Aithal, another teacher.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) seems to be expanding its horizons, with nearly 6.36 lakh new students joining the prestigious institution this academic year.

It has now got over 28 lakh students, a national network of 61 regional centres, over 3,000 learner support centres and a presence in 36 countries.

Elaborating on IGNOU's national goals for higher education that include expansion, inclusion and excellence, Vice-Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai says that IGNOU is now the world's largest university.

“After successfully evolving unique models of democratisation of education, training and capacity-building in the open- and distance-learning mode, we are now also offering on-campus programmes,” he says.

Community colleges

Dr. Pillai says that IGNOU's community college scheme, which aims to provide an alternative system of education to those who have missed out on mainstream education, is a great success, with 271 such colleges becoming operational. This number is expected to rise to 500 by the year-end, he adds.

On the several initiatives launched by the university during the recent times, Dr. Pillai says these include Gyan Deep, in collaboration with the Army, the convergence scheme and establishment of regional institutes of vocational education and training, in association with Srei Sahaj eVillage. The pioneering programmes launched for the aurally challenged remains a testimony to IGNOU's commitment to reach out to the unreached, to take education to the doorsteps of learners and offer inclusive education without barriers.

Dr. Pillai says the university will strive to utilise optimally the educational and training infrastructure and the intellectual capabilities available in the formal and informal sectors, be it private or public, to ensure the success of the national mission for significantly increasing the gross enrolment ratio.

The university will further work to implement the objectives of the national skill development mission.

In response to the recent UN Convention on Disability, IGNOU, along with the International Centre for Sign Language and Deaf Studies and the Ishara Foundation, is planning to develop a vision for a college for the aurally challenged, where Indian and international students can study a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sign language, Dr. Pillai says.

New programmes

The university has announced new programmes in management of mental retardation and visual and aural disabilities, an M.Ed. course in special education and an M.Sc. programme in counselling and family therapy. IGNOU has already announced a BA course in applied sign linguistics, to begin from the July 2010 academic session.