Quota 2
Another excellent article on Quota system for IIT admissions in Times of India dated 18th April 2008
If subject-wise cutoff marks for general candidates in the just-held IIT-JEE are, as in last year’s examination, likely to be in single digits, how will the system have scope to relax the qualifying marks, as announced, by 10% for OBCs and 40% for SCs and STs?
Chairman of IIT-Jee 2008, Prof N.M. Bhandari, admitted to TOI that the subject-wise cutoffs for reserved candidates may turn out to be less than one mark which was the level to which the bar was lowered last year in one of the subjects for general candidates.
Speaking from IIT Roorkee, Bhandari hastened to clarify that since subject-wise cutoffs for even general candidates have become so low, a further reduction for reserved candidates would be of “little significance”.
The ridiculous cutoffs are thanks to a rather liberal ranking procedure adopted last year by the IIT system, stung as it was by an RTI application seeking statistical basis for the cutoff marks of the 2006 examination.
In a blow to what is regarded as one of the toughest competitive examinations in the world, neither of the statistical formulae given by IIT Kharagpur to the Central Information Commission tallied with the stated cutoff marks for 2006 — 37 for mathematics, 48 for physics and 55 for chemistry.
The more transparent procedure adopted in 2007 reduced the corresponding cutoff marks to 1, 4 and 3, making a mockery of their purpose of ensuring that selected candidates displayed a certain minimum level of knowledge in every subject.
In the new procedure, the cutoff marks are pegged to the best marks obtained by the bottom 20% of the candidates in each subject. As a result, 91% of the candidates cleared the cutoff marks, for instance, of chemistry in 2007 as compared to no more than 6% the previous year.
Since subject-wise cutoff marks have been rendered meaningless in the new procedure, the selection of the candidates, whether general or reserved, now depends entirely on their aggregate marks. The number of candidates making it to the merit list will be 1.15 times the total number of seats available in each of the categories.
According to Bhandari, it is at this stage that the reserved candidates will get a more substantial benefit as the aggregate cutoff (the aggregate of the last general candidate to have been selected) will be relaxed by 10% for OBCs and 40% for SCs and STs.
Bhandari is at pains to explain that, though subject-wise cutoff marks are likely to in single digits for everybody, “the emphasis we place on the aggregate marks for ranking candidates ensures that we still get the best in the country”. All the same, if they persist with the present policy of selecting candidates essentially on aggregate marks, IITs will sooner rather than later have to do away with subject-wise cutoff marks given the farce they have been reduced to.
On quota, IIT cutoffs may go negative
If subject-wise cutoff marks for general candidates in the just-held IIT-JEE are, as in last year’s examination, likely to be in single digits, how will the system have scope to relax the qualifying marks, as announced, by 10% for OBCs and 40% for SCs and STs?
Chairman of IIT-Jee 2008, Prof N.M. Bhandari, admitted to TOI that the subject-wise cutoffs for reserved candidates may turn out to be less than one mark which was the level to which the bar was lowered last year in one of the subjects for general candidates.
Speaking from IIT Roorkee, Bhandari hastened to clarify that since subject-wise cutoffs for even general candidates have become so low, a further reduction for reserved candidates would be of “little significance”.
The ridiculous cutoffs are thanks to a rather liberal ranking procedure adopted last year by the IIT system, stung as it was by an RTI application seeking statistical basis for the cutoff marks of the 2006 examination.
In a blow to what is regarded as one of the toughest competitive examinations in the world, neither of the statistical formulae given by IIT Kharagpur to the Central Information Commission tallied with the stated cutoff marks for 2006 — 37 for mathematics, 48 for physics and 55 for chemistry.
The more transparent procedure adopted in 2007 reduced the corresponding cutoff marks to 1, 4 and 3, making a mockery of their purpose of ensuring that selected candidates displayed a certain minimum level of knowledge in every subject.
In the new procedure, the cutoff marks are pegged to the best marks obtained by the bottom 20% of the candidates in each subject. As a result, 91% of the candidates cleared the cutoff marks, for instance, of chemistry in 2007 as compared to no more than 6% the previous year.
Since subject-wise cutoff marks have been rendered meaningless in the new procedure, the selection of the candidates, whether general or reserved, now depends entirely on their aggregate marks. The number of candidates making it to the merit list will be 1.15 times the total number of seats available in each of the categories.
According to Bhandari, it is at this stage that the reserved candidates will get a more substantial benefit as the aggregate cutoff (the aggregate of the last general candidate to have been selected) will be relaxed by 10% for OBCs and 40% for SCs and STs.
Bhandari is at pains to explain that, though subject-wise cutoff marks are likely to in single digits for everybody, “the emphasis we place on the aggregate marks for ranking candidates ensures that we still get the best in the country”. All the same, if they persist with the present policy of selecting candidates essentially on aggregate marks, IITs will sooner rather than later have to do away with subject-wise cutoff marks given the farce they have been reduced to.
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