IIT entrance a breeze for most aspirants

Several students heaved a sigh of relief after encountering a simple and conceptual paper in the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) that was held across the country on Sunday.

Amodh Kore, a student of Ruparel College, Matunga, said, “The paper was not lengthy like last year’s. Students could finish it on time.” Another student from the same centre said: “The paper was very conceptual. Students who know the basics thoroughly must certainly have cracked the paper.”

Close to 4.85 lakh students took the exam, with around 21,000 from Maharashtra.

One question in the mathematics part of Paper I left students confused, claimed Praveen Tyagi, managing director of IITians’ Pace, an IIT-JEE training institute. “One question in code zero of section I was debatable,” he said.

According to course director Ajay Antony, TIME institute, students found mathematics in section I tougher than other subjects and chemistry easier. “In paper II, however, students found the chemistry section tougher than other sections. Question 54 in code zero of paper I on matrices and determinants seemed to be incorrect,” he said.

Asked about claims that one questions was erroneous, Sounak Choudhury, the chairman of IIT-JEE 2011 from IIT-Kanpur, said, “I have not received any such complaint from any centre. However, subject professors from all IITs will check the questions within five to six days.”

Abhijeet Chatterjee, the chairman from IIT-Bombay, said, “There were 18 centres in Thane, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, and 8,500 students appeared from Mumbai alone. The test went smoothly.”
Costly delay

Rahul Solanki, a student of KC College, was upset after finding black spots on his optical response sheet (ORS) where he is supposed to mark his answers. “I asked the examiner if I could continue marking. If not, I asked her to get it replaced. The supervisor asked me to wait for some time,” he said. He wasted time and could not complete one section.