HYDERABAD: Is 35, the new 18? Well for Eamcet it does seem so as many students who have cleared their Intermediate in 1980s and 1990s are ready to test their luck in the TS EAMCET 2015, which is scheduled for May 15.
With age being no barrier to give the exam, candidates who cleared their boards as early as 1981 have applied for the exam and few of them, have even shelled out extra bucks such as late fee to take part in the state entrance test.
However, the convener of Eamcet-2016 N V Ramana Rao said that the motive of middle aged candidates will be verified.
“The details of candidates (1981 to 2007 batch) who are appearing for the test are provided to police department to verify their intentions. Details like whether they are already studying in some other medical or dental colleges or whether they are trying to impersonate someone would be verified,” Rao said.
“A candidate writing an exam three or four times makes sense, but when he or she is planning to write the exam for twentieth time looks fishy. Earlier we caught some elderly candidates writing exams for someone else. So, to make sure that only genuine candidates make the cut, we are taking such steps,” he added.
About 38 students who are aged 35 or above would be giving EAMCET 2016, of these 34 candidates are aged 35. Among them 10 would be giving exam in the engineering stream and 24 in AM.
According to the year of birth statistics of applicants given by the Eamcet officials only two candidates, one in Engineering stream and other in AM, are above the age of 40. However, when the qualifying exam passing year statistics are taken into consideration the number is doubled.
When asked about the disparity in the year of birth statistics and qualifying exam passing year statistics, the convener said, “The data is computer generated. Age wise statistics is taken from SSC certificate and qualifying year statistics are filled by the candidates themselves. May be the candidates could have manipulated the numbers. The whole point of this verification is to catch such manipulative candidates.”
Apart from the middle aged candidates, applicants who had paid fines of ` 5,000 and `10,000 and repeaters will also be verified by the officials.
Details of candidates who have applied to regions other than their place of study or residence have also been provided to the intelligence officials.