Entrance Exams in India
The last decade has seen a marked increase in the number of colleges and universities in India that are committed to impart quality education to prepare the students for the upcoming challenges in life. The standard of the institutes offering under graduate and post graduate degrees is at par with the foreign colleges and universities and for this reason the number of students both local and foreign enrolling in these institutes is increasing every year.
The admission to the colleges and universities in India takes place through entrance exams. The entrance exams in India are quite competitive and judge the students aptitude, sharpness, and intelligence. Some colleges and universities also conduct interviews of those candidates who clear the entrance test and then offer admissions to those who prove their verbal power as well while some colleges and universities offer admission on the basis of the entrance test results only.
Some States offer admissions to under graduate and postgraduate courses to the natives of that particular State only while some invite applications from all over the country. In case of the latter, the admission test is held simultaneously in many cities of India.
Types of Entrance Exams in India
There are different types of entrance exams in India for different courses offered by the colleges and universities. Different universities conduct individual entrance exams and some universities and colleges conduct a common entrance exam. The popular entrance exams in India for admission to medical schools are AIIMS, AIPMT, AICEE by Veterinary Council of India and the AFMC. The Joint Entrance Exams abbreviated as JEE, All India Engineering/Architecture Entrance Exam commonly known as AIEEE, GATE which is a short form of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) are conducted for engineering/architecture institutes. The CLAT: Common Law Admission Test and the LSAT: Law School Admission Test are some common Law tests while the CAT: Common Aptitude Test, MAT: Management Aptitude Test and the NAT: National Aptitude Test are conducted for admission to business and management schools.
Entrance exams are also conducted for other courses as well such as computer sciences, fashion designing, film making etc.
Pattern of Entrance Exam
The entrance exams in India for under graduate courses are purely based on multiple choice questions. The candidates are offered four options and they have to select the correct option. Usually there is negative marking for a wrong answer and if more than one answer is given for a question, it is marked wrong. The entrance exams for post graduate courses contain multiple choice questions as well as short essay answers. To avoid human errors, the paper is checked by the OMR or the Optical Mark Reader a special laser.
As entrance exams are extremely important and quite tough, the students need to prepare for them months before the exams. The students must read news papers daily and should keep themselves informed with current affairs and general knowledge as these form a major portion of the entrance exams. The students should also study reference books and mostly a list of reference books is provided by the websites. Coaching centers have mushroomed all over India which prepare students for the entrance exams. The students can also join these. The best way to prepare for the entrance exams is by solving sample papers and previous year papers which can be downloaded from the websites.
Entrance exams in India provide a second chance to those students who for some reason or the other could not perform well in the annual exams. The entrance exams provide a chance to such students who can secure admission in a prestigious university by scoring good marks in the entrance exams.