HINDUSTAN TIMES
A number of students found paper 1 (BE/BTech) of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Mains lengthy in Jaipur on Sunday, while in Patna many applicants said that the paper was easy.
In Jaipur, students were dissatisfied with the time limit for paper I. They found chemistry and physics portion of the exam tougher than mathematics. A total of 90 questions, carrying 360 marks, had to be answered in three hours.
“I found chemistry portion toughest and could attempt only 60 out of 90 questions. Mathematics questions were of average difficulty but physics and chemistry papers were tough. Overall, the paper was lengthy”, said Abhishek, who took the exam.
“The question paper was very lengthy and I attempted only 75 out of 90 questions. However, my preparation was good and I am confident of getting a decent score”, said another applicant Mridul Jain.
A total of 44,253 candidates appeared for paper I held across 72 centers in Jaipur. They were frisked at the venue as carrying any stationery, mobile phones and electronic gadgets was prohibited.
In Bihar, around 54,000 students appeared from different parts of the state at around 29 centres in Patna, 10 in Muzaffarpur and eight in Gaya. Students who took Paper-1 termed the overall paper easy with chemistry being most scoring.
“It was perhaps the easiest paper of JEE (Mains) in last three years. Mathematics was relatively easy while chemistry was quite scoring. Only physics was tough among the three subjects, like always,” said Rajat Kumar and Manish Kumar, who took the examination.
JEE paper-1 aspirants had started lining up at the examination hall since 7am in the morning, as per CBSE guidelines. The CBSE has taken strict measures to prevent use of unfair means.
While most examinees cooperated to the frisking and security measures at the centres, tension was reported from a few centres in Bihar, where parents of the appearing students and security personnel had a tiff. No violence was reported.
Parents of the examinees waited outside the examination hall in the scorching heat till 12.30pm, the conclusion of paper 1.
In Lucknow, many candidates reached examination centre hours before the start of the paper as they knew that frisking will be done.
Thousands of students took the exam in Lucknow too, but we do not have their reaction till now.
Ahead of the start of exam, City Montessori School student Gaurav told HT that he had prepared well for examination.
“Alongside boards I prepared for the competitive examination. But honestly speaking, this exam is going to be tough. I will also appear in state entrance exam to be conducted by AKTU previously known as UP Technical University,” said Gaurav.
The first level of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), for admission to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and other engineering institutes, held on Sunday was tougher compared to last year, say experts.
Experts said that the cut-off is expected to rise due to ambiguities in certain questions.
The cut-offs for Common Merit List (CML) in 2013, 2014, 2015 were 113,115 and 105 respectively.
“Few questions in the chemistry paper were ambiguous,” said Ramesh Batlish, who teaches at a coaching institute.
About 12 lakh students appeared for the examination at over 2,000 centres in 129 cities in India and abroad.
Students said that Paper 1, which had questions from physics, chemistry and mathematics, was from within the syllabus but few were difficult to solve. Paper 2, that tested students in mathematics, aptitude and drawing, was easier.
The exam conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was written. The online exam is scheduled for April 8 and 9.
“Few questions in physics were tricky and challenging. Compared to last year this section was a shade tougher,” said RL Trikha, director FIITJEE. He said the same was the case with chemistry and mathematics.
“Few questions of mathematics were also lengthy,” he said.
Disha Sharma, who appeared for the examination, also said the physics section was difficult.
“The chemistry paper was easy. Mathematics section was a little tricky. I had difficulty in solving few physics questions,” said Sharma.
