THRISSUR: Many students across the state are in a confusion as the IISER and ICAR exams that fall on June 23 and 24 respectively have been allocated exam centres at distant places and reaching the places has become difficult.Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) exam is a most sought-after one at the national level and many students from the state appear for it, to join the prestigious science institutes in country. Indian Council Agricultural Research (ICAR) exam is another competitive test that has been chosen by more than 10,000 students in Kerala.
The regulation is that the students who apply for the exams should be allocated their preferred centres. In case, the preferred centres are not available, they should be allocated the nearest possible centres.
For Devesh from Kollam, the exam centre for IISER exam is Mangalore, while his ICAR examination centre is Thiruvananthapuram.
Plans go for a toss
“It is difficult to travel from Mangalore to Thiruvananthapuram in a day and appear for the exam. We are still clueless about the travel plan,” said Dulari Rajeev, who works at Azeezia Institute of Medical Sciences and Research. Another candidate, Sarath Hari, who plans to appear for both IISER and ICAR exams, has got Mangalore and Thiruvanananthapuram as centres. “We don’t know how to make it to both exams. We don’t want to miss both, as it will affect his future,” said Sarath’s mother.
T P Sedhumadhavan, director of Entrepreneurship, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, said it was the postponement of the ICAR exam that created problems.“Usually ICAR exams are conducted before the third week of May, while this time the scheduled exam on May 12 was postponed,” he said, adding it would be difficult to change the centres once they are fixed. Many students from Kerala got Namakkal and centres in Andhra, which makes it difficult to appear for the exam.