All India Engineering Entrance Examination

The All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), is an examination organized by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India. Introduced in the year 2002, this national level competitive test is for admission to various under-graduate engineering and architecture courses in institutes accepting the AIEEE score, including 5 Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITs) and 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs). The examination is generally held on the last Sunday of April and results are announced in the last week of May or the first week of June. Candidates are ranked on an all-India basis and state basis. Thus, they have an All India Rank (AIR) and a State Rank (SR). The eleventh edition of AIEEE will be held on April 29, 2012 in 65 cities across India. The online version of the exam shall be conducted between May 7 and 26, 2012 in 22 cities.

Structure

The examination consists of two papers: Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 has three sections: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry with equal weight for each subject. Each section consists of multiple choice objective-type questions each of which has four choices. Out of the four choices for a given question, only one choice is correct. Paper 1 has a negative-marking scheme wherein an incorrect answer is negatively marked with one fourth of the maximum marks allotted to the question. Paper 2 has three sections: Mathematics, Drawing, and Aptitude. Mathematics, and Drawing sections have multiple choice objective-type questions and the Aptitude section has drawing-based questions. The duration of each paper is three hours. Candidates are not allowed to carry any textual material, calculators, logarithmic tables or electronic devices into the examination hall. The number of questions and their maximum marks have been variable through the years. The questions are based on a syllabus that is common to syllabi of all the state boards in India and the Central Board of Secondary Education. Candidates can opt for question papers either in English or in Hindi language. For admission to B.Tech or B.E. courses in the participating institutes the candidate is required to take the Paper 1; for admission to B.Arch or B. Planning courses the candidate is required to take Paper 2. Students can opt to take any one or both the papers. The examination was conducted in offline pen and paper mode till 2010. In 2011, as per the orders of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, CBSE conducted Paper 1 in Computer-Based-Test mode for the first one lakh candidates who opted for the same, while the remaining students took the examination in the conventional pen and paper mode. The number of attempts which a candidate can avail at the examination is limited to three in consecutive years.

Counselling

Examination Statistics

Year	No. of candidates registered	No. of candidates appeared	Examination centers		Seats offered
			No.	Cities	BE/ B.Tech	B.Arch/ B.Plan	Total
2011	1114541	1053807	1685	86	34311	1070	35381
2010	1118148	1065100	1623	86	26816	936	27752
2009	1010061	962119	1460	85	23676	855	24531
2008	862853	792752	1298	75	17163	759	17922
2007	641276	599096	1047	79	13653		13653
2006	523811	490193	912	?	≈11000		≈11000
2005	436048	397178	763	87	≈9897		≈9897
1994	417723	357266	765	102	≈9000		≈9000

Logo of the Central Counselling Board

The Central Counselling Board coordinates the admissions to the under-graduate courses in the participating institutes. Though nearly one million students take the exam only small percentage of students are eligible for central counselling or state-specific or category-specific counselling on basis of their AIR. For example, in 2010 1,065,100 students appeared at the exam, competing for approximately 26816 seats for BE/B.Tech and 936 seats for B.Arch/B.Planning. Counseling for SC/ST candidates and SC/ST physically handicapped candidates is done on the first two days.^{[citation needed]} Then the physically handicapped in the Open (OP) category are counselled.^{[citation needed]}

As declared by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), 50% of the seats in NITs will be filled from AIEEE eligible candidates of states where NITs are located and the remaining 50% will be filled on All India Merit basis. Whereas for IIIT's all of the seats are being filled through All India Merit Basis.

Participating institutes

Institutes participating in the Central Counselling:

• 30 National Institutes of Technology
• 5 Indian Institutes of Information Technology
• Army Institute of Technology, Pune
• Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
• Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology
• Delhi Technological University
• Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology
• Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya
• Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata
• Indian Institute of Science
• International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
• Jaypee Institute of Information Technology
• Lovely Professional University
• Mewar University
• Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana
• Mumbai University Institute of Chemical Technology
• National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology
• Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology
• Netaji Subhash Engineering College
• Nirma University of Science and Technology
• PEC University of Technology
• School of Planning and Architecture
• SelaQui Academy of Higher Education
• Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy
• Sharda University
• Sir Padampat Singhania University
• Tezpur University
• The LNM Institute of Information Technology

2011 incident

In 2011, CBSE postponed the examination by 2.5 hours after Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force found the leaked question paper in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh the night before. Meanwhile alternate set of question papers were sent to the examination centers. CBSE announced the postponement 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the examination.

Criticism

It is not clear whether Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) status holders are eligible to appear for AIEEE. In the AIEEE Registration Form the drop down list for Nationality column has choices 'Foreign' and 'Indian'. If one opts for 'Foreign' which should be a natural choice for OCI status holders since they are citizen of another nation in addition to being Overseas Citizen of India, they get an error message 'you are not eligible for AIEEE 2012 on the basis of Nationality as Foreign', whereas website for the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs mentions as benefits of OCI status as '10. General parity with non-Resident Indians in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial and educational fields except in matters relating to acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.' on their webpage http://moia.gov.in/services.aspx?ID1=39&id=m3&idp=35&mainid=23 It is also not clear that whether CBSE private candidate is eligible or not. Another criticism is about the language of the exam. AIEEE is conducted only in English and Hindi, making it harder for students where vernacular languages, e.g. Tamil, Telugu or Gujarati , are more prominent. As an example, in September 2011, the Gujarat High Court has acted on a Public Interest Litigation by the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, for conducting the exams in Gujarati. A second petition was made in October. A third Public Interest Litigation (WP.PIL 2239/2012) is filed in Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on 24-02-2012 for conducting AIEEE in Tamil and other recognized 12th Medium of Instruction regional languages from the academic year 2012-13. In Tamil Nadu, 75 percent of passed out higher secondary students are from Tamil medium, i.e. around 4.5 lakhs. They are forced to appear this entrance in Hindi or English which is not their medium of instruction. This is violative of their fundamental rights and if this continues to prevail, the regional languages will cease to exist including Tamil.

See also

• IIT-JEE
• All India Pre Medical Test
• Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
• All India Council for Technical Education

External links

• AIEEE-Official website