Prof. Durgesh Mangeshkar

In the past 15 years, there are major changes every 2-years or so in the Engineering Entrance Exams scenario at State and National level. There are about 3500 Engineering colleges in India having about 18 lakh seats of which about 350 Engineering colleges and 1.5 lakh seats are available in Maharashtra alone. Every year, about 8 lakh seats remain vacant in India of which about 50000 seats remain vacant in Maharashtra alone !   It must be noted that hardly 60000 seats belong to A-grade Engineering colleges across India. The constant changes in admission rules create confusion in the minds of students, parents and teachers. This article attempts to lend clarity to the admissions criteria for different Engineering colleges for the year 2016.   1) IITs : Admission to the IITs is on the basis of JEE ADVANCED All India Ranks only. Additionally, the student must score atleast 75% marks Aggregate of 5 subjects in XII Boards as eligibility criteria for admission to the IITs. II...

The admission to the 30 NITs, 4 IIITs, DA-IICT and 15% All India quota to all the unaided and aided Engineering colleges in different States (like VJTI, MIT, VIT, ICT etc.) is on the basis of JEE MAINS exam. The JEE from 2013-16 is being conducted in 2 stages viz. JEE MAINS in April and JEE ADVANCED in May. About 13 lac students across India appear for the JEE MAINS of which 2 lac students are selected for JEE ADVANCED. The admission to the 19 IITs is based on the JEE ADVANCED. In Maharashtra, there are about 2.5 lac students who appear for various Engineering Entrance Exams like MHT-CET, JEE etc. of which only about 15000 students consciously prepare for JEE. The rest prepare only for XII Boards and MHT-CET exam. Thus, barely 6% of Engineering aspirants in Maharashtra prepare for JEE as against 75% in Andhra Pradesh and 90% in Delhi & Kota. Despite this, Maharashtra ranked No.3 in India in 2015 after Andhra Pradesh & Rajasthan in number of IIT Ranks produced State-wise. Th...

The MHT-CET for Engineering has been reintroduced from 2016 by the Govt. of Maharashtra after it was cancelled in 2014 & 2015. The MHT-CET is an Entrance exam in Maths, Physics & Chemistry for admission into the 4-years B.E. and B.Tech. Courses of all the 350+ engineering colleges in Maharashtra via the 65% State quota. The MHT-CET was first introduced hurriedly within 50 days in Maharashtra State in June 2004 following a shocking Supreme Court Ruling in April 2004. The introduction of MHT-CET replaced the importance given to XII Boards for admission to Engineering colleges from 2005-2013.   The same system is now being implemented from 2016 onwards.   There are about 2.4 lac Engineering aspirants in Maharashtra to about 1.5 lac Engineering seats in 350+ Engineering colleges of which about 50000 seats remain vacant each year. It must be understood that out of these 350+ Engineering colleges in Maharashtra, hardly 50 colleges may be considered as A-grade co...

The phenomenal growth of Kota coaching institutions since the 1990s is a classic case study for Business schools. A handful of professionals who lost their jobs due to the closure of a couple of companies like JK Synthetics in Kota forced them to take tuitions of Engineering aspirants for IIT-JEE. The success of the experiment planted the seed of a coaching system which grew exponentially in a matter of few years to astronomical proportions. As of 2015-16, about 1.25 lac students from Std.8-12 & Repeaters study in more than 50 different coaching institutes in Kota for Engineering Entrance exams of which 5 institutes viz. Allen, Resonance, Vibrant, Career Point and Motion are considered large-sized each catering to over 15000 students any given year. The Kota coaching industry is estimated to be about INR 1500 cr. in terms of annual turnover.   For the past 10 years or so, Kota has consistently registered about 2000-3000 IIT Ranks per year. Thus, the IIT success rate of K...

The   IIT-JEE   (recently called the   JEE ADVANCED) commenced since 1960 is considered the toughest Entrance Exam in the world and is the criterion for admission to undergraduate courses in the world-renowned tech-schools   viz. the IITs. Though the syllabi of the IIT-JEE has undergone very little change since 1960, the format and exam pattern have undergone major changes every 2-3 years since the past 2 decades. A brief history of the various formats and exam patterns of the IIT-JEE is as under : 1960 – 1989 : The IIT-JEE was an exam having 3 Question Papers each one in PCM of 3 hours each. The exam pattern was Subjective. 1990 - 2003 : The exam format of the IIT-JEE had two stages   viz. Screening & Mains. It was mandatory to clear the Screening Exam to be eligible for the Mains exam. The Screening was an Objective Test whereas the Mains was a Subjective Test. 2004 - 2005 :   The IIT-JEE became a single-stage exam having 3 sepa...