T.Nadu focuses on board than entrance exams

In Tamil Nadu, students pay more attention towards the preparation of Class XII examinations. It has been observed that though Chennai has topped in board examinations in terms of acquiring higher percentages and even by claiming overall higher pass percentage in comparison to other regions, but it has not come out successful in many of the national level entrance exams.

Around 8,000 students in Tamil Nadu attempted the IIT JEE 2011 compared to over 37,000 in Andhra Pradesh. On analysing the results ,we may find that Tamil Nadu lags behind Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala this year. While Andhra Pradesh has many students who have manged to claim top ranks in IIT- JEE. Tamil Nadu could only mange a few ranks in top slot.

The absence of a common engineering entrance to get into engineering colleges in the State are reasons why few students prepare seriously for national-level engineering entrances. It is widely seen that mostly people would prefer private colleges affiliated to Anna University, over NIT Pondicherry. Besides a few State Board students, only about 30 - 40 per cent of the CBSE students who take the national level entrance exam actually prepare for them seriously.

Ideally, to appear and do well in a national level entrance examination a students can prepare simultaneously for board and entrances, as the syllabus dont differ much. But, for Tamil Nadu state board students they need to know their text book lessons well to score well in the State board exam.

However, experts in Tamil Nadu say that more than clearing the examinations, the preparation would help students gear up to national-level competitions and learn to apply concepts differently. Also, the increasing number of engineering seats and colleges in Tamil Nadu has reduced the spirit of competitiveness among students.