The insane toughness of Indian competitive exminations

[aneeshm]

Inspired by silver's thread about the SAT.

Here are the links to the papers of this year's competitive examination (and this if after it has been made much easier - the papers till 2005 were much, much tougher). You are expected to take this test immediately after you have finished your school education. You cannot drop one year to study to make a better score - you have to take it as soon as your 12th is over, in the same year. You also get only one chance.

Here are the links to the papers, with solutions:

Narayan Solutions to the JEE, Paper 1
Narayan Solutions to the JEE, Paper 1

FIITJEE solutions, Paper 1
FIITJEE solutions, Paper 2

A link to the AIEEE solutions for this year. The AIEEE can be taken multiple times, but usually, nobody can afford to drop more than one year.




I know the SAT is rather pathetic in front of these. How does your countries' test compare?

 

[Mirc]

Hmm.... they are not really that kind of tests I would need to pass (for me it's stuff like music history and theory and philosophy), but I've always liked physics and mathematics so I can make sense of what's there. Yeah, it seems very hard. However, I notice they have answer variants. That makes it a bit easier.
As for the chemistry part, I hate chemistry. It's one of the few subjects that I hate. And I'm not the person to hate exact sciences. Just chemistry. So I'm not able to make any comparison...

BTW, a bit unrelated, I am pretty confident that (at least in Europe) we have the most tiring highschool timetable existing.

 

[Rossiya]

I think it's rather stupid Indian tests are in anglais.

 

[Integral]

Aneeshm, do students on every track take these tests?

I recall from the other thread that you mentioned different 'tracks': science, commerce, and arts. Do arts and commerce students have different tests? And if they do, how substantially do those tests differ from the ones shown?

(I can't see an artist taking this thing, sorry. The ones shown put Calculus AB to shame)

Integral

 

[Xanikk999]

What? Only once chance?

Very unfair if i say so myself. Theres no tests i know of in this country where you can only take it once.

 

[Mirc]

^ True. 1 chance is extremely unfair.

 

[C~G]

What's the point of all this mathematics and physics if these are for everyone?

 

[Fifty]

Holy crap that's amazing! No wonder 61% of you Indian adults know how to read! The Democratic Republic of Congo's standardized test must be even MORE incredible, since 65% of them are literate. The USA's literacy rate has to be like 12% or something with our pathetic tests

 

[Tee Kay]

VCE's not too bad, I think.

Thank you for the papers by the way.

 

[Kennigit]

SAT is a general math and reading skills. First paper would be what an AP Physics test would be.

If what Integral said about how not everyone takes the same tests, then it is like the AP system. Students choose to take more advanced science and math courses, and thus recieve a much harder test than the one used for general student populace. If Indian students choose their tracks that they will follow, naturally they will take courses for that track, thus science/math people would choose to take those more advanced courses again.

 

[MrCynical]

I think it's rather stupid Indian tests are in anglais.

I'm guessing this has been translated. There are a few typos and a certain amount of mangled grammar which are something of a giveaway.

Obviously I'm not going to go through the entire test, but most of the chemistry is fairly easy (I'd have no real problems beyond a couple of questions asking for specific bits of trivia), the maths is somewhat more difficult, I'd be struggling with most of the physics, simply because I've forgotten most of the formulae (or never learnt them in the first place).

What mark is an average person expected to achieve?

 

[luiz]

The test is pretty easy for me, but than again I'm finishing an Engineering course I'd be a pretty lousy engineer if this test did not seem trivial for me.

The toughness of it seems comparable to those of the admission exams for engineering courses in brazilian universities. Not easy but not too hard.

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

Narayan Solutions to the JEE, Paper 1
Narayan Solutions to the JEE, Paper 1

FIITJEE solutions, Paper 1
FIITJEE solutions, Paper 2

I hate to disrupt your pro-Third World swaggering, but these aren't that different than any physics test of a relevant level I've ever seen. Or taken.

And I'm American, by the way.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I know the SAT is rather pathetic in front of these. How does your countries' test compare?

My country obviously can't stack up to India, as evidenced by the multitude of threads that seem to only heighten the greatness of India, a perfect country as anyone smart (I.E., passed the JEE) would easily know.

 

[Xanikk999]

My country obviously can't stack up to India, as evidenced by the multitude of threads that seem to only heighten the greatness of India, a perfect country as anyone smart (I.E., passed the JEE) would easily know.

Well thats a good thing. I think we shouldnt try to fail our students.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well from a British point of view the maths questions were the sort asked in the first year of a degree level course so I am quite impressed if that is the pre-university exam.

 

[Tomoyo]

I hate to disrupt your pro-Third World swaggering, but these aren't that different than any physics test of a relevant level I've ever seen. Or taken.

And I'm American, by the way.

I took the Physics SAT subject test today. The Physics parts of those tests are harder, but not by much. It's also annoying how your switches look like capacitors.

The physics part of Indian exam seems a little easier than the AP Physics B. I've never taken an AP-level mathematics course, so I don't know about that.

 

[Integral]

Having taken AP Calculus AB, the material on the Indian exam looks familiar, but the types of questions are different. There is more emphasis is on limits and inverse trig functions on the JEE, but none of the math is undoable or unfamiliar.

The precalculus questions are unlike any on an American exam, with the emphasis on conic sections and vectors. SAT I math stops with Algebra I and geometry, and the SAT Subject Test Math IIC goes through limits but does not include conics, so both SAT mathematics tests fall short of the JEE.

Integral

 

[ShannonCT]

I know the SAT is rather pathetic in front of these. How does your countries' test compare?

This test is a bit harder than the SAT II subject tests but about the same difficulty as the AP tests in Physics, Chemistry, and Calculus AB.

It seems a bit silly the way your test cover all three subjects on such a short test. The American AP tests are way more comprehensive.

 

[atomicgopher]

Well seeing as how I just took the Chemistry, Physics B, and Calculus AB exams less than a month ago I feel I can make a comparison. For one it seems that the AIEEE is a about twice as long as an AP test. I looked around and found the schedule for examination, and it takes 5 hours and 30 minuets to take the AIEE, and it takes a grand total of 9 hours and 30 minuets to complete all three AP tests. Keep in mind that the AP exams are spread out over two weeks, where as the AIEEE is all in one day. For the most part the material only looked a little harder than the AP test, was not solely focused on calculus in the mathematics part. I usually don’t study for test, I didn’t study for the APs this year much, and I am sure I got a five on all of them, except physics I might have gotten a four there. I would have study for this test, and I probably would have done fine, but not now I have forgotten so much now that I am out of school.