CHENNAI: Over 13,500 students from Chennai and its neighbourhood appeared for the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE)conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 23 centres in the city.
Most students were from schools following CBSE syllabus in and around the city, and after the first session they said the exam was easy and went well, especially when compared to the recently concluded IITJEE.
“We were examined in Maths, Physics and Chemistry. After my miserable show in IITJEE, I thought I was going to lose but it looked like I was well prepared as I was familiar with almost all the concepts questioned by the board,’’ said Rohit R, a student who took his exam at SBOA school.
Several students made similar reactions,as they compared the exam with IITJEE and found this examination easier than JEE. A few students from other boards like Tamil Nadu State Board, or who came from the Middle-East countries found the application-oriented questions in Maths and Physics a little time-consuming.
Parents, who were anxiously waiting outside the centres, were unanimous that this exam was important to the students as they would get the national college atmosphere.
“My son has taken the IITJEE. This exam has to be written as it means entering the portals of the next best engineering college - the National Institutes of Technology. I would rather my children study in IITs or NITs as it gives them a national exposure,’’ says G Ramagopalan, a bank employee.
Further, all CBSE students say that their scores are often not high enough to compete with the Tamil Nadu State Board students to enter the fray in the counselling conducted by Anna University for admissions into engineering colleges here.
For parents, NITS and IITs also mean good education at nominal cost when compared to the ever-increasing fees of the self-financing engineering colleges in the state.
“The costs of studying in most residential colleges like NIT are lower than the semester tuition fees in a self-financing engineering college. Around Rs 7,000 per semester as tuition fee and around Rs 2,000 as hostel fees is what I pay for my elder son studying in NIT, Surat. The fees in a self-financing college is Rs 32,000 per semester. So, I would want my daughter too to get placed in a Central-government run college,’’ explained a retired railway employee L Shastry.
Apart from Chennai, there were centres in Coimbatore and Madurai this year.
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