Entry to IITs just got tougher

In coming year admission to IIT will get much tougher than most students thought. In 15 states and UTs whose boards hold their own Class XII exams, IIT aspirants will have to score more than 60 percent marks. From 2013, a student in Andhra will have to score minimum 87.20 percent marks in Class XII to become eligible for IIT entrance while in Punjab, minimum percentage is 70.80. For CBSE students, the qualifying percentage from 2013 would have to be a minimum of 77.80 % .
           On June 6, the IIT joint admission board(JAB) had approved the new class XII eligibility cutoff formula replacing the old one where only 60 % score in class XII across boards was needed. Under the new system, that gives more importance to school exams for IIT entrance, only those students will be eligible who come in the top 20 percentile of all the exam writing students in a respective board in a given year. Boards where more than 60 % marks in class XII for IIT eligibility are : Andhra 87.2 %, Bihar 64.6 %, CBSE 77.8 %, Himachal 63.25 and J&K 67%. Boards where less than 60 % marks are needed are : West Bengal 58 %, Uttrakhand 55.20 %, Orissa 56.33 % and Assam 54.20 %. These percentages are not likely to change much.  CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said that students should look at these targets for IIT eligibility. He also insisted that the new system was more inclusive and took care of the fact that different boards awarded marks differently. In my view , students must work hard to achieve their target.