IITs agree on new percentile-based admission formula-Hindustan Times

The IIT Council on Wednesday sought to end the joint entrance examination (JEE) row by fixing a new eligibility criteria for 2013 under which successful candidates would have to be in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards.The formula does away with the existing eligibility
criteria of 60% marks in boards.

Now, candidates will first appear for the JEE (main) screening test, which will filter out the top 1.5 lakh students for the JEE (advanced) test. The final IIT ranking would depend only on the all India rank in JEE (advanced), subject to the successful students meeting the percentile criteria.

The top 20 percentile will vary across boards from year to year. For example, those who got more than 78% in CBSE last year would have made it to its top 20 percentile bracket. For UP boards, students with more than 65% marks would have been eligible.

The new pattern was agreed upon unanimously by the IIT Council. HRD minister Kapil Sibal, chairman of the council, did not attend the meeting.

The All India IIT Faculty Federation welcomed the new system. “Our main objection to the proposed exam changes was weightage on board marks. With board marks not being included, there should be no problem,” said its secretary Atul Mittal.

IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua said the percentile system would encourage students to focus on the boards.