It is that time of the week again when I sit down and think over significant things that affect the future of my motherland. Competitive exams of all sorts are important, in the sense that they claim to separate the "elite" from the also-rans.
There has been a lot of debate recently over the nature and format of competitive exams for admissions to all sorts of institutions. But none created as much stir as the declaration by IITs that the format of the "Final Frontier" i.e. the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) is going to be changed. For starters, there need not have been any debate. The IITs are an autonomous body, formed by an Act of Parliament. They are not answerable to anyone and they can conduct their entrance examination in any way they wish. The way they went about it, however, is questionable. Why should they claim that they are making the exam "easier"?
The claim that the student is under a lot of stress due to competitive examinations is hog-wash. Who, or rather, what are these people trying to shelter the "kids" from? Life itself? Life is full of stresses, as any professional will testify. And by making the students' work less to get into the Premier Institutes of the country is not a good idea. Some may counter this by saying that even if the exam is made easier, only the best will go through. I beg to differ. By making an exam simpler, the examiner's job is going to be made tougher because the number of students doing well is going to be increased. We can only wait and see as to how easy the exam really is.
Getting admission to IITs is not an easy thing. And it should not be easy. The cream of the nation should make it there. Not some kid who cannot handle pressure and who took the easy way in to IIT. It's nothing but a mockery of all the students who have got admission to IITs till date. Didn't they have stress in their life? You bet, they did. They must have had parental and peer pressure to do well in their respective board exams, because most of the parents still consider getting admission to IIT a chance thing, whereas the future of a student in Engineering is "secure" through the conventional method. In spite of all these pressures, these students managed to get through. And now, people who cannot handle stress will make it to IIT. Do they think that life within IIT is simple? It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.
The whole purpose of competitive exams is to give you an idea of what lies ahead. And in a country like ours, with such a huge population, competition is bound to be great. Therefore, kids need to know how to work under pressure. What are their jobs going to entail? Do they think that working professionals do not have stresses? They have their own deadlines; work has to be finished on time, not just to satisfy the customer but also to have peace of mind. And a competitive exam that is tough is the way to prepare oneself for the main examination that lies ahead : LIFE.
The sort of competitive examination that everybody should atleast appear for, once in their life-time, is the CAT. This is a no-holds barred, out and out, cut-throat competition examination. It is the sort of an exam which gives you a feel for the life that you are going to face ahead. A manager has to think on his/her feet and the CAT prepares one for it. Similarly, the JEE prepares the student for the life he/she is going to face in IIT. Making the CAT or the JEE (or even the GATE, for that matter) simpler is defeating the whole purpose of holding the examination in the first place.
I am sorry. This post hasn't quite turned out the way I had expected it to. I had thought of writing an article which would bring out the finer aspects of a competitive exam. Why it is necessary in a country like ours and the reasons why students graduating from IITs/IIMs have it in them to take on the best in the world. But then, this is the way the article has come out. I think that all the current students of IIT will agree with me. The JEE needs to be made tougher if anything. Also, it should be made leak-proof. In the sense that there are increasing incidents of people "cracking" the exam before the exam date.
