Nearly 20,000 students appeared in the joint entrance examination (JEE) in the city on Sunday. However, the number of IIT aspirants in the state saw a decline from the previous years, official sources said. About 30,000 aspirants appeared from the state last year, he said.
The Registrar of IIT-Bhubaneswar, Bata Kishore Ray, said, “The number of aspirants from Orissa has reduced this year, however, the number of girls appearing in the exam has increased.” The entrance test was held at 23 centers in six cities across the state including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Balalsore. In the capital city, over 5,000 students took the test at 13 centres.
In a bid to bring transparency in the examination, students are now allowed to take a copy of their answer sheets with them. Besides, the cut off mark has already been announced this year. It is 10 per cent per subject and 35 per cent over all, Ray said.
Students coming out of the examination halls with smiles on their faces indicated that paper was good. “I was a bit nervous in the morning. But the paper was not so bad,” said Supriti Mahalik, an aspirant.
“In the first session, I found the Mathematics paper was easier than Physics and Chemistry. Chemistry was ok but physics paper was a bit conceptual and theoretical. I hope I would get through,” said Suhranshu Sahu, another aspirant.
