IITs Might Consider Online Test For JEE

The Indian Institute of Technology is planning to conduct online Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), on the lines of the Indian Institute of Management. While the Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry into IIMs went online three years back, the IITs are yet to take the big step.

IIT-Delhi which is organizing IIT-JEE 2012, had invited all the directors of IIT for a workshop on Friday, where an online model was demonstrated. The JEE office is hosting the workshop. Sources from IIT-Delhi have confirmed that Education Testing Services (ETS), which conducts the GRE and several other popular global online examinations, will make a presentation at the workshop.

Most officials at the record withheld the plan to go online with JEE. A senior official from one of the IITs claimed that the workshop was scheduled to discuss the possibilities of an online examination for JEE. “We might just discuss the feasibility. No decision has been taken,” said the official.

A senior IIT-B professor said, “An online exam may or may not work for JEE. While CAT faced teething problems initially, it is stabilized now. For an exam, where you need to calculate a lot, pen and paper seems to be the better option. But today students are well versed with technology and in future, everything might be computerized.”

Presently, only two directors have responded to the invitation, claimed an official from IIT-Delhi. "Experts from ETS will make a presentation and showcase their testing systems. It is a successful testing pattern in the US. But there will not be any overnight decision on JEE going online," said the official.