Entrance Examinations - Admission Tests

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Med varsity to hold UP CPMT 2012
By Our Correspondent
LUCKNOW : King Georges' Medical University now called Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU) will for the last time hold the combined pre medical test (CPMT) 2012.

The CPMT – the medical admission test for government medical, dental and AYUSH (ayurvedic, unani & siddha and homeopathy) colleges has been assigned to the medical university by the state Medical Education Department.

Medical university spokesperson Dr Abbas Mahdi confirmed the news stating, “We have received intimation in this regard.” He added that the schedule for exam would be announced very soon.

This year's CPMT could be the last because from next year all medical college seats will be filled by the CBSE organised national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET).

NEET was to be held from this year but eleventh hour decision by the Central government to postpone NEET by a year forced the Medical Education Department to hold its own medical admission test.

Usually, the exam takes place on the first Sunday of May. But in case the day clashes with another exam, overriding is possible. However, the authorities do not push beyond May 15.

On an average, 65-70,000 candidates take the CPMT to book a seat in state medical colleges, Rural Institute of Medical Sciences (Saifai) and Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj
Medical University (CSMMU) for MBBS and BDS courses. Seats in state ayurvedic, unani and homeopathy colleges are also filled through CPMT scores. Recently, some private medical and dental colleges have also started taking admissions through CPMT.

UP PGME to be held on February 26
LUCKNOW : The Uttar Pradesh Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination (UPPGMEE) will be held on February 26, according to sources at Chhatrapati Shahuji
Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), which is conducting the exam.

The university sources said on January 19 that the students will have to fill up forms online available at university’s website www.kgmcindia.edu. The last date for submission
of forms is February 4, 2012.

UPPGMEE is the gateway to prestigious post-graduate seats in various specialties in state medical colleges and CSMMU. On an average, over 4,000 medicos take the exam for the 500 postgraduate seats in MD, MS, and post-graduate medical diploma and MDS courses.

Regarding the pattern of examination, CSMMU spokesperson Abbas Mahdi said, “There is no deviation in the pattern. There will be a single paper of three hours. This will contain 190 multiple choice questions (MCQ). While the first 90 questions will be on clinical subjects, another 90 will relate to
non-clinical subjects. The last 10 questions will be comprehensive,” he said.

Prof Abbas added that the MCQs will be divided into two types: direct in nature with four options and the remaining 10 will be comprehensive ones. Each question will have four alternatives of which one will be correct or best response.
Negative marking has been withheld.

He advised the students to check the medical university’s website to look for the examination schedule.

The merit list will be placed on the medical university’s website on March 7, 2012. Procedures for admission would begin in the first week of April. The medical board for awarding physically handicapped certificates will sit on April 3, 2012 and first session of counselling will take place on April 17, 2012.

The medical university has started examination and website query helplines to clear doubts. These are 8004707085, 8853425480 and
9670419690.

The students can call up on these helplines during working hours (10:00 am to 6:00 pm). They may also send a fax to 0522-2614026 or email to for
help.

JNTU-H to hold EAMCET-2012
HYDERABAD : On December 28 Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) named the universities who would conduct Eamcet-2012 and other Common Entrance Tests (CETs) in 2012. The schedule for CETs will be announced on January 7, 2012.

JNTU-Hyderabad will hold the Eamcet for the 15th time. Kakatiya University has been given the chance to conduct ICet for MBA/ MCA admissions, while the Osmania University was given PG Engineering CET (PGECET) for M.Tech/ M.Pharma admissions.

Andhra University will conduct Education CET (Edcet) for B.Ed admissions and Sri Venkateshwara University will conduct Lawcet for LLB/ LLM admissions.

Nagarjuna University has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting Physical Education CET while JNTU-Kakinada will conduct ECET for polytechnic courses admissions.

MCI releases final syllabus for NEET
NEW DELHI: The first nation-wide common entrance tests for MBBS courses will be held on May 13 next year, the final core syllabus of which has been
released by the Medical Council of India.

The syllabus has been prepared by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) New Delhi.

The NEET will be the only entry route in nearly 42,000 MBBS seats in private and government colleges, sources said, adding
that the mammoth examination would be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education.

As per the MCI proposal, the NEET would lead to an all India merit list as well as state-wise merit list of the eligible
candidates. All candidates would be admitted only on the basis of the merit list.

The common merit list of different states can be easily taken out so that reservation policies followed states could be applied to state common entrance merit list, officials said, adding that no candidate who failed to obtain the minimum eligibility marks would be admitted in the MBBS course.

No all-India PG med admission test in '12
NEW DELHI : The Central government has decided not to hold the common entrance test for postgraduate medical courses next year, as proposed earlier, citing lack of resources and expertise needed for conducting such a huge exercise nationwide.

The National Eligibility Entrance Test will be held only in 2013. “In view of the lack of resources, we have decided that the test will be held in 2013, and the National Board for Examination will be roped in to conduct the test. It will strengthen its own resources and infrastructure. Now it does not have the capability for holding the exam,” Health Secretary P.K. Pradhan said on October 19.

The test was scheduled for January-February for admissions during 2012-2013.

The Medical Council of India had earlier planned to hold a common entrance examination for postgraduate and super-speciality courses in 2012. Talks were on to finalise the institution that will hold the test.

MCI sources had said that discussions were underway to assign AIIMS to conduct the entrance test for its postgraduate courses, as well as those for other medical institutes like PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry, CMC Vellore, AFMC Pune and King George's Medical University Lucknow.

At present these institutions hold their own entrance examination for postgraduate medical courses.

IITs scrap JMET, to adopt CAT scores
KANPUR : The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have scrapped their Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) and have, instead, clubbed with the CAT conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), according to a notification published by the IIT Madras on August 25.

The admissions to postgraduate management programmes in six IITs at Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Roorkee, Kharagpur and Madras will henceforth be based on CAT scores. IIT-Madras was supposed to conduct a JMET this year.

The institute’s website already mentions that “only students with a CAT score will be eligible to apply”. IIT-Delhi and IIT-Madras have already announced on their website that JMET stands cancelled and that the students have to check individual websites of departments/schools of management for other eligibility criteria.

According to Narayan Rangaraj, IIT-B professor, who also was in-charge for the entrance test, the IITs have jointly decided to do away with JMET. “JMET was only the qualifying exam. Instead of the JMET score, the CAT score will be considered for admissions.

Apart from the CAT score, individual IITs will have their own criteria like conducting group discussion and personal interview. Others might still conduct a qualifying exam for the international students. However, IIT-B has decided to use CAT for the base qualifying score, said Rangaraj.

An official from IIT-B said, “The decision was taken in order to reduce the burden of multiple tests on students. IITs being autonomous have decided to consider CAT scores for our admissions too.”

IIT-Madras, which has already put up the criteria on their website, states that performance in CAT, group discussion and personal interviews, previous academic qualification and work experience, if any, will be considered for the selection process.

Karnataka CET on May 3, 4. Counselling online

BANGALORE : Karnataka's Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya announced on January 19 that the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to undergraduate professional courses of academic year 2012-13 will be held on May 3 and 4.

According to the schedule, the Biology exam will be from 10.30 am to 11.50 am, while Mathematics exam will be held from 2.30 pm to 3.50 pm on Thursday, May 3. The same schedule will hold good for Physics (10.30-11.50 am) and Chemistry (2.30-3.50 pm) exam the next day.

The Kannada language test will be on Saturday, May 5. Horanadu Kannadiga candidates will have to appear for the test at 2 pm and Gadinadu Kannadiga
candidates at 4 pm. A detailed notification will be published in the second week of February, Acharya said.

The counselling, he said, will be strictly online this year and added that the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) studied the online counselling processes in Delhi, Chandigarh, and Hyderabad before recommending that Karnataka too should go online with the seat selection process.

The KEA, which conducts the exam, will only print the brochure with test information, said Siddaiah, Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education. He said that the KEA officials will have discussions with private college managements on fees and seat sharing ratio on January 30.

The minister said that the application process will begin by January end. The The details of the seat selection process will be published on its website
later.

The announcement puts an end to months of speculation on whether or not a State entrance test will be held for medical courses following the contentious decision by the Union Government to conduct an all-India test for medical courses.

Nearly 1.20 lakh students are expected to appear for the test the fee structure of which will not change.

Online CET aims at checking admission fraud

BANGALORE : The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) says that the CET counselling has been made to check the practice of blocking seats by colleges that has resulted in several meritorious students failing to secure admissions each year.

According to a story frontpaged by the Deccan Herald on January 22 quoting "highly placed sources" the total intake approved for each course/college will be posted on the website when counselling begins, letting students know the exact number of seats available and helping them exercise their choices better. The colleges failing to specify the exact number of seats under the CET quota will be debarred from the seat-selection process, which means they can neither fill the seats under the CET quota nor add them to the management quota. Simply put, the seats will remain vacant, says the report.

Sources said it would be a welcome change from the present system under which the KEA is left clueless whether a student has joined the college of his or her choice.

Taking advantage of the loopholes, several institutions lure meritorious students into choosing the seats only to make the candidates surrender them later. The managements later claim the CET allotted seat during reconciliation.

The Deccan Herald has learnt that the new process will not spare medical colleges from concealing their total intake. Engineering colleges, specifically those in the rural areas will, however, have slightly relaxed norms as many of them fail to attract adequate students.

A source said the online counselling model would be based on the one adopted by the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). The KEA will even use the same software as employed by the AIEEE. It is also likely that the process will be hosted by KEA’s present website.

“Except for incorporating details of category-wise reservation, our system will be like the AIEEE,” sources said. The National Informatics Centre has the
sufficient number of programmers to deal with the possible increase in traffic.

To ensure smooth passage of the web-based process, the KEA will conduct trial runs after the CET gets over on May 5. The website will work on a near
real-time basis. Information will be updated daily and students will be able to access it after some time.

While the web-based seat selection process is expected to bring relief to a large number of students, there are concerns over potential glitches in the
website and its possible crashing due to real-time usage by several hundreds of students.

There are also fears that the system will be difficult to use for students from the rural areas. According to sources the KEA system would be
student-friendly. (Courtesy : Deccan Herald, Bangalore)

AIPMT prelim on April 1, main exam on April 13

NEW DELHI : On December 28 the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) officially notified the dates of the preliminary and main examination for All-India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Test (AIPMT).

According to the schedule the preliminary exam will be held on April 1, 2012 while the main exam of the AIPMT will be held on April 13.

The admission test will be for 15 per cent merit seats in MBBS and BDS and not 100 per cent seats as decided earlier under the National eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scheme that was put off for a year at the eleventh hour.

The CBSE has now decided to go for online application this time through the official website. The schedule for submission of online application forms without late fee starts on December 26 and will continue till January 25.

Being the first year of the online process, the board has established 172 facilitation centres, including one in Riyad and Saudi Arabia. Once the online submission is done, aspirants are supposed to send the confirmation page to the CBSE for the completion of the registration process.

Under pressure, CBSE postpones NEET to 2013-14

From Sanjiv Dube
NEW DELHI : Succumbing to intense pressure from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has postponed the proposed National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) to 2013-14.

A CBSE release said on December 12 that "as per communication received from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India" the CBSE has decided to postpone the "introducation of NEET" to academic year 2013-14".

The release said that the CBSE would now conduct the All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Examination only for the 15 per cent of all-India quota seats.

Explaining the cause of postponement, the CBSE release said that as several states had sought exemption from the common entrance test for under graduate medical courses, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided to postpone the proposed NEET by a year.

According to the new CBSE schedule, the All-India Pre-Medical/Dental Preliminary Examination would be held on April 1, 2012 and the final examination on May 13 -- the day NEET 2012 was to be held.

The eligibility conditions, centres, syllabus, pattern, and related things will remain the same as those of the AIPMT 2011 examination.

The schedule for the submission of application forms would be shortly communicated, the release said.

Earlier the CBSE had announced on November 17 that the NEET would be held on May 13, 2012. it said that the NEET would have a single paper with 180 objective-type questions in physics, chemistry and biology. The questions will be answered on a gradable sheet using ball-point pens only. Each question will carry four marks, will have four options and a single correct answer, the central education board said. It had even declared its final syllabus for the exam.

Approximately 8 lakh students take UG medical entrance tests every year but they sit for different tests, including the All India PMT conducted by the CBSE and various state-level medical entrance tests.

Earlier Tamil Nadu had opposed the move and secured a stay on it from the High Court. The Health Ministry subsequently asked the MCI to withdraw the common entrance test notification but the Supreme Court told the MCI to go ahead. At the latest meeting which Health Secretary attended, the view was that state governments would be roped in to build a consensus on the matter.

AIEEE goes online, likely on April 29 next yearr

NEW DELHI : The 11th All India Engineering/Architecture Entrance Examination (AIEEE) for admission to BE/ B.Tech and B Arch/ B.Planning courses of various NITs, IIITs, deemed universities, etc, is scheduled to be held on April 29 next year.

While the authorities are still working out the modalities of the exam, they have confirmed that the exam will go completely online just like the Common Admission Test (CAT) for IIMs.

“This year, the CBSE is planning to conduct online exams on a mass scale. Students are advised to acquaint themselves with the new method,“ a CBSE circular said on August 18. A competent agency will be employed to ensure smooth conduct of the test.

About 28,000 B.Tech seats and 1,000 B. Arch seats are filled annually through the AIEEE.

Held generally on the last Sunday of April, AIEEE is used by National Institutes of Technology (NITs), five Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), 13 other Central/ State Government institutes, and 23 self-financed institutes, deemed universities et al.

The examination, introduced in 2002, consists of two papers. Paper 1 has three sections – Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. Paper 2, too, has three sections – Mathematics, drawing, and aptitude.

Utter chaos had prevailed at various centres across the country during this year’s examination on May 1, 2011 when the question paper was found to be leaked in Uttar Pradesh. Consequently, examination in the morning session was delayed hours whereas students scheduled in the afternoon session had to write it at a later date.

50% weightage to UG scores in Central varsity
PG common admission test

By Charu Sudan Kasturi
NEW DELHI: Good under-graduate scores may soon eliminate half the pressure of securing post-graduate admission at any of India's central universities.

Students will receive 50% weightage for previous academic performance in common admissions to all Central universities under a blueprint finalised by a panel of experts appointed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal. Performance in a common entrance test will receive the remaining 50% weightage.

The panel of vice-chancellors headed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor B B Bhattacharya has submitted its final report to Sibal, and the blueprint is set to be discussed with VCs of about 200 Central and state universities on March 25-26, government source said.

Sibal plans to start common admissions for M.Phil and Ph.D programmes at the country's 40 Central universities from the coming 2011 academic session.

The common admission test will be extended for masters' programmes in 2012 and to undergraduate programmes in 2013 under the plan. Central universities currently mostly rely solely on admission tests for picking students for masters, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes - instead of giving specific weightage to students' scores in the previous programme. University Grants Commission sources said an estimated 100 lakh students are currently pursuing under-graduate education across the over 500 central, state and deemed universities. Close to 10 lakh of these are studying at Central universities.

About a lakh are pursuing masters' programmes at Central universities, while between 5-10,000 are enrolled in M.Phil and Ph.D programmes, sources said.

The Bhattacharya panel was earlier mulling 30% admission weightage for scores in the preceding degree programme under-graduate scores for masters' admissions, masters' scores for M.Phil and M.Phil scores for PhD programmes. But the weightage has been hiked in the panel's final report, which also specifies that only scores in the first two years of the preceding academic degree course will be considered.
(Courtesy : Hindustan Times)