"We are going crazy with anxiety," says Manav Gupta, a JEE Main aspirant from Maharashtra, after the schedule for the exam was released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) today, December 16. The students claim that this schedule is problematic and brings in many disadvantages, ranging from clashes in dates to allowing little time for syllabus completion. As such, demands for the exam to be postponed are on the rise.
The first session of JEE Main 2023 is scheduled to be conducted between January 24 to 31, while the second session will be held from April 6-12. Students want the first session to be shifted to April-May. "Unless such a postponement is considered, we will not be able to write the exam well," says Roshan Singh, an aspirant from Durgapur, west Bengal.
Hardly any time left...
"The schedule came at very short notice. Usually, the schedule is released 3-4 months ago so that students get time to prepare well. But bringing out the schedule now with only a month left for the exams is problematic as there is hardly any time left to prepare. This is the first time anything like this has happened," says Roshan Kumar, General Secretary, Bihar AISU (All India Students' Union).
On the other hand, students who will be repeating the exam in 2023 explain that the JEE Main 2022 exam and counselling were delayed, as a result of which the process ended only in October-November. "So, we started preparing in October. At least 6 months are needed for proper preparation. How can we appear for the exam so soon?" questioned Chinmay Dhongde, a student from Pune, Maharashtra.
Syllabus stacks up
The students say that they have completed only 30-40 per cent of the syllabus by self-study. Some repeater students who joined coaching classes this year mentioned that the syllabus in the coaching classes would be completed only in March. "But now that the exams will be in January, the coaching classes will hurry the syllabus. They may even take online classes for long hours, which will be hectic," said Chinmay.
"Apart from completing the syllabus, there are revisions to do and test paper series to complete. We need more time to schedule our plan and prepare well. Even if the exam was to be conducted in January, we should have been notified at least 3-4 months earlier," added Roshan Singh. "Had we known the exams were coming this soon, we could have taken admission in colleges, rather than wait a turn," said Sudhanshu Shardul, a repeater student from Bihar.
Dates clash
Students from Bihar are worried that they have to juggle the time between practical exams, board exams and JEE Main. "We have practical exams from January 10-20. Then there's JEE till January 31. And from the very next day, February 1, our Class XII Bihar board exams begin," said Lucky Mishra, a student from Darbhanga.
However, it is not only Bihar students who will be facing this issue. The CBSE Class XII board exams start on February 15, while the practical exams are scheduled from January 1. "There are projects and pre-boards to manage too. There is no proper gap and this is creating too much stress and anxiety," said a student from Noida on the condition of anonymity.
"Many students also have to travel long distances to the JEE exam centres. Managing the travel and then appearing for the exams a few days after is not easy," added Manav. "We are not mentally prepared to appear for JEE Main," said Srinivas Yevate, another aspirant from Maharashtra.
The scoring problem
A 75 per cent criterion has been set up to appear for the JEE Main exam in 2023. Those students who score a minimum of 75 per cent in their boards would be allowed to appear for JEE Main. This criterion was earlier present prior to 2020 but had been lifted during the pandemic years. However, another criterion for state board students was also in place then, which allowed the top 20 scorers to appear in the exam, despite their scores. This is absent from the guidelines for the 2023 exam.
"There are students who are among the top 20 scorers in their state boards despite scoring below 75 per cent. But if NTA fixes 75 per cent, they won't be able to appear. We need clarification on this," said Sourabh Sah, an aspirant from Rajasthan. Roshan Kumar added that some CBSE students also did not score 75 per cent last year. "It should have been notified before that this criterion would be reintroduced. Now many students will be losing the chance and are confused," he said.
The repeater students are further worried about their scores. "In our first attempts, we managed to score fine, but could not get into our desired institutes so we waited a turn. But now that the exams are being conducted at such short notice, scoring well will be very difficult," said Roshan Singh. "We are not even sure if we can score on par with our previous score," said Srinivas.
