
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala syllabus students, who have been complaining of their ranks going down by several rungs compared to students of other syllabi in the state engineering entrance exam (KEAM), can heave a sigh of relief. Thanks to the adoption of a new formula for ‘standardising’ marks scored by students of various Plus Two boards, their complaint seems to have been addressed to a large extent.
The KEAM results, announced on Tuesday, saw five state syllabus students securing the first 10 ranks, including the top position in the state. Notably, the highest rank attained by a state syllabus student was 25 last year with the topmost ranks going to students from the national board, CBSE. In the top 5,000 ranks this year, the number of state syllabus students rose from 2,034 in 2024 to 2,539 this year. It was only in the top 100 ranks that CBSE students inched ahead of their state syllabus counterparts this year.
As per the new formula for marks standardisation, that was cleared by the cabinet on Monday, the highest marks scored by students of Kerala syllabus for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry will be kept as benchmark and the marks of other syllabus students will be equated to it. For instance, if the highest marks scored by students of Kerala syllabus is 100/100 and that of another board is 95/100, both will be considered as 100.
Another change was to give weightage to marks scored in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in the ratio of 5:3:2, unlike the practice of weighing all subjects equally.
Earlier, statistical parameters such as global mean and global standard deviation were also used to standardise the marks. This would involve comparision with marks scored by students from 2009 to 2025. State board students had complained that this method had put them at a disadvantage for the past many years.
“Under the new formula, state syllabus students’ marks in qualifying exam will remain more or less the same after standardisation as the marks of other state boards are equated to it,” said a senior official. Last year, there were complaints that state syllabus students lost up to 27 marks using the old formula, prompting the government for a rethink.