Date:30/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/30/stories/2006013017700300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Engineering mock test `challenging, useful'

Staff Reporter

It's good practice for AIEEE, say students

HAPPY OUTCOME: Students discuss the question paper after writing the AIEEE mock test at SBOA School, Anna Nagar on Sunday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: The Hindu Education Plus and AIMS Education on Sunday organised an All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) model test for Class Twelve students in Chennai. The examination was organised in seven centres around the city.

Good response

A precursor to the AIEEE scheduled to be held in April 30, the mock test evoked a very good response from Class Twelve students of the city. "We analysed AIEEE question papers from 2002-2005 and identified topics that had been given more weightage. We made this year's question paper challenging so that students will know how much more they need to prepare for the actual examination," said Gita Prabhu, Director AIMS Education.

Aditi Jayaraj of St. John's Senior Secondary School said, "Maths and chemistry were fine. Physics, I thought, was a little difficult," as she was coming out of the Hindu Senior Secondary School, Triplicane centre. "Since there was so much confusion about whether CET would be conducted, I have been concentrating on AIEEE from the beginning," she said.

The AIEEE, based primarily on the Plus Two CBSE syllabus, would determine admission to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other reputed deemed universities across the country.

"AIEEE looks at the syllabus of classes XI and XII as a single unit. Most national level examinations, whether engineering or medicine will be based on the CBSE syllabus," said Ms. Prabhu.

Better chance

"We might stand a better chance than State Board students. But considering the number of people appearing for AIEEE this year, having a CBSE background might not be too big an advantage," said Bipin Prakash Chari, a student of Padma Seshadri, Nungambakkam.

"Till last year, a State Board student could not have appeared for a mock test without considerable preparation. With our new syllabus, we were able to attempt the paper and I'm sure I'll pass," said Madan Raj, MCC higher Secondary School. However, his friends Manoj Vembuli, Uma Mahesh and Harish Kumar felt that the math section was difficult.

More time

"I needed more time. But the test was useful in terms of gaining more practice. It gave us an idea of the kind of questions we can expect," said S. Shwetha of DAV Gopalapuram.

"A lot of questions were based on our class eleven portion. As it's been a year since we learnt all that, I found a few questions difficult," said M.S. Anirudh of DAV Boys.

Sruthi Srinivasan of Vidya Mandir Mylapore said, "Chapters such as functions, limits, arithmetic and geometric progression, permutation and combination and probability were given more weightage."

New syllabus helpful

"I met a couple of State Board students during the course of the test. They said a good part of the paper was from the 11th State Board syllabus. The new syllabus seems to be helping them," said P.V. Navaneethakrishnan, Consultant, AIMS Education. The Students were provided with machine-readable answer sheets that would be computer-evaluated. Results will be declared on February 12, he added. Sunday's test was sponsored by Jaya Group of Colleges.

AIMS Education has organised a discussion at Vani Mahal, T. Nagar, on February 12, when expert faculty would discuss the solutions for tricky problems in the mock test. "The mock test results will be announced there and top scorers rewarded," said Ms. Prabhu.