The Joint Admission Board (JAB), that conducts the JEE exam, has announced JEE Advanced will be conducted online from the upcoming 2018 session. Numerous errors in last year’s question paper prompted JAB to make this historic shift towards online examinations. The motive is to ensure a greater transparency and easier evaluations.
Opportunities
- The move has been welcomed by many eminent educationists and experts as it would curb the malpractices that have been reported in various examinations.
- Online examinations are less likely to be predictable for miscreants.
- The online JEE Advanced exam would become easy to evaluate and is less likely to be prone to evaluation errors.
- The OMR sheets were very tough to fill and thus were prone to incorrect responses being marked despite knowledge.
Challenges
- Many experts speculate that online JEE would be tough for students from rural backgrounds to tackle. It would bring a natural disadvantage to learners who are not highly proficient in computers and internet. As HT cites in this article, large strata of JEE Advanced aspirants hail from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where the internet and computer penetration is very limited. Although the online examination is based on the same concepts, experts believe it is very likely to give students from urban backgrounds a clear advantage.
- Another very big change that this platform brings is that students cannot mark questions into categories for attempting later. A student can simply flag a question for referring later. On the contrary, in pen-paper formats, students could use mnemonics for classifying the questions as tough, very tough, doable, or not-doable as per their convenience.
- In other exams like CAT, that have gone online in the past, some errors in implementation have been reported in the past.
Till date, IITs have had large majority of meritorious students from small towns and smaller cities many of whom are not from very affluent backgrounds. This decision is likely to affect the confidence of these students.
The remedy: Right Preparation Strategy
For an online JEE, right examination preparation strategy implies solid concepts as well as exam readiness which is not possible without simulated actual JEE-like conditions. Students need to practice specific concepts as well as full-tests online for being proficient in performing online.
For aspirants, especially the ones from rural backgrounds, this move mandates online preparation. You should have attempted umpteen number of mock JEEs online before you take the JEE Advanced. It is most must for the students to train themselves to perform in online exams. Read more on our blog titled JEE preparation through online learning.
To tackle the problem of flagging questions for later reference, a student can maintain a list of questions to be referred later. This can be done in the rough calculation sheet that would be provided.
Mock Tests in actual JEE-like environment: For exam readiness, the students need to take the mock JEEs like it is held in realty. Therefore, a good quality mock test series is highly beneficial as the competition is very stiff and you cannot afford to lose even one mark.
It has been explained in our previous blog how losing out a single mark can lead to considerable downfall in the rank obtained. In some cases, a single mistake can lead to loss of 3-4 marks which can cost you a downfall in rank by 300-400 ranks. Based on the marks scored by top 500 rankers in JEE, +1 or -1 mark can lead to a +5 or -5 effect in the JEE rank. Similarly, a single mark can make a difference of 20 ranks in 500-1000 rank category, 40 ranks in 1000-2000 rank category, and 80 ranks in 2000-5000 rank categories.
myPAT is supported by FIITJEE content and it replicates the actual JEE exam environment. Developed by JEE Advanced experts and technologists, myPAT assesses your improvement learning behaviour of test takers and gauges their strengths and weaknesses accordingly. Based on this, a student is suggested a list of topics and concepts to prioritize.
myPAT has, over the years, developed a huge following among aspirants and is used by 60,000 aspirants. It is supported by 600+ concept tests and umpteen full tests which are exact simulations of JEE Mains, Advanced, BITSAT etc. myPAT aims to launch a new version which will provide students comprehensive learning assistance.
Keep checking myPAT blogs for more information on JEE Mains and Advanced and online examinations.