Engineering Entrance Exams - The Decider

Engineering Entrance Exams - The Decider

Engineering is one of the most sought-after career fields in India. Come rain or sun, sitting for engineering entrance exams, either for one’s own interest in the field or to satisfy one’s parents, are a must for almost every Indian student.

In India, engineering is highly popular amongst students as a career choice. Appearing for engineering entrance exams or competitive exams is the first step towards admissions in India’s top engineering colleges. However, the pre-requisite to take that step is to know about the most important and the most sought-after engineering entrance exams or competitive exams of India.

Engineering exams are conducted every year at both National and State ranks for choosing the most skilled and proficient candidates for admission into engineering institutions across the nation. Some of the prominent engineering colleges in India include IITs, NITs, Birla Institute of Technology and many others. Almost all the engineering colleges are AICTE approved.

Listed below are the top 10 engineering entrance exams in the country along with their 2016 exam dates, which every student should keep a track of:

•        JEE Main (Joint Entrance Exam Main)

•        GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)

•        JEE Advanced (Joint Entrance Exam Advanced)

•        BITSAT (Birla Institute of Technology and Science Admission Test)

•        VITEEE (VIT Engineering Entrance Exam)

•        SRMJEEE (SRM Joint Engineering Entrance Exam)

•        WBJEE (West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam)

Now let's look into the details of some important among them.

1.      JEE Main (Joint Entrance Exam Main)

The Paper-1 (B. E./B. Tech.) of JEE (Main) will also be an eligibility test for the JEE (Advanced), which the candidate has to take if he/she is aspiring for the admissions in the undergraduate programmes offered by the IITs.

Admission test for undergraduate engineering programmes in:

•        30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs)

•        23 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs, IIITM and IIITDM)

•        16 Central Government/State Government Funded Institutions

•        Various self-financed deemed universities and other institutions

•        Institutions in the states of Gujarat, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Odisha, which were earlier admitting based on their State Level Examination, have joined the JEE (Main) system too.

Eligibility Criteria:

•        Candidates must have passed in final examination of class 12 or its equivalent with five subjects.

•        Class 12 results of candidates will be a factor only in determining the eligibility criteria and not the JEE rankings from 2017 onwards.

•        To qualify for appearing in the exam, students need to have at least 75 percent marks or be in top 20 percentile in their Class 12 examination.

•        The SC/ST/OBC students should have 65 percent marks.

•        Candidates can attempt JEE Main for a maximum of three times.

2.      JEE Advanced

The JEE Advanced in the only gateway to bag one of the 10,000 odd seats for undergraduate studies in the various IITs. It is considered to be the toughest engineering entrance examination in India.

Admission test for:

•        23 IITs in India

Eligibility Criteria:

•        Candidates have to be among the top 1,50,000 rank holders in JEE Main.

3.      GATE

GATE referred as Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. It is a national level engineering entrance exam organized by IITs & IISC rotationally. In 2018, this exam is regulated by the India Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati. It is a perfect gateway for those aspirants seeking admissions in postgraduate engineering/technology/architecture/science courses offered by top colleges of the country. The application form will be issued by the authority from 1st September 2017 only via online mode.

4.      BITSAT

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science Admission Test (BITSAT) is almost as tough as the JEE Advanced, as per the statistics. BITSAT 2016 will be held in online mode i.e. it will be a Computer Based Test (CBT).

Admission test for:

•        Engineering degree courses in BITS campuses in Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad.

Eligibility criteria:

•        Only those aspirants with a minimum of 75 percent marks in PCM in their class 12 Board exams are eligible for it.

•        Candidates having the first rank in all the central and state boards in India for the year 2016 will be given direct admission to their wish.

Through single engineering entrance exam, the government aims at reducing pressure on students to perform in multiple entrance exams. It makes sense to a certain extent. It could go some way in eliminating issues with multiple engineering entrance exams. More on this will be coming from AICTE, MHRD, and CBSE.