KOLKATA: The
IIT JEE (Main) candidates in the rural areas are worried whether they can face the Advanced test as it will be conducted online this year. To relieve stress, the IITs are trying to tie up with software giant
TCS and set up practice exam centres where the registered candidates can practice writing online tests. This is in addition to the mock test papers that the IITs have uploaded online to help candidates practice at home.
“Though we are still discussing the modalities with TCS, the idea is to help rural students who are not used to writing online tests. We sympathise with them as they might have lacked the opportunity to prepare. This is the first time everyone will write an online JEE (Advanced),” said Pallab
Banerji, IIT JEE (Advanced) chairman at IIT-Kharagpur.
The entire exam will be online this time as complains of errors in the printed question paper had rocked the IIT system last year. In 2017, the exam was organised by IIT-Madras. Keeping in mind the problems that candidates might face while writing the online exam, the IITs uploaded several mock test papers. “Despite this, we felt that there may be hundreds of rural candidates who might find the idea of sitting in an online environment for a test, quite daunting. This might cause additional stress. Thus, we can help the candidates prepare by creating online centres where they can practice for several days before the test on May 20,” Banerji added.
If things go as planned, such centres will be set up at locations easily accessible to rural candidates. These will have space to accommodate thousands of candidates at once. “The idea is to relieve the fear of a virtual environment,” Banerji stressed.
Around 2 lakh candidates, who qualify in IIT JEE (Main), will be registered to write IIT JEE (Advanced). There are 11,000 seats across IITs.
