TNPCEE
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The Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination is an entrance examination used for admitting students to the Engineering (for doing B.Arch students should take one more aptitude test) and Medical Colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is conducted by Anna University on behalf of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The performance in the TNPCEE is combined with the performance in the Class 12 Board Examination to arrive at a "cut-off" which is used to determine the rank of the students. TNPCEE carries 100 marks and Class 12 Board Examination carries 200 marks (marks obtained in Class 12 Board Examination of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry normalized to 100 marks, 50 marks and 50 marks respectively).
The Entrance examination contains 3 papers viz., Mathematics, Physical Science (Physics and Chemistry) and Biology. Each paper carries 50 marks and it follows Multiple Choice Question pattern. Those wishing to do BE & MBBS should take the first two papers and the last two papers respectively.
TNPCEE was first conducted in 1984 by Anna University and it has been conducting it since then. Before that an interview was conducted which was found to be inadequate. Anna University has the impeccable of conducting it without any question paper leakage (Question papers were leaked in the case of IIT-JEE, CAT and the EAMCET conducted by Andhra Pradesh).
For some years there are controversies surrounding TNPCEE. The first one is the wrong questions asked in the question paper which happened for two years. The next one is the discarding of the TNPCEE marks for the admission for the academic year of 2005-06 by the Tamil Nadu (TN) Government (Later this was reversed by the court and TNPCEE marks were taken into consideration). The latest one being the TN Government deciding to scrap the TNPCEE from the academic year 2006-07, and base admissions into professional courses solely based on the Class 12 examinations (Even this was reversed by the Madras High Court and the TN Government has appealed in the Supreme Court and its judgement is awaited). The ostensible reason is to create a level playing field for the rural students. The Government claims that urban students have an edge in the Entrance Examination. Almost all the major political parties, the most vociferous being the Pattali Makkal Katchi party, are against TNPCEE.
The Class 12 Board Examination is insufficient when it comes to ranking the students. Many students obtain the same marks and hence to break the tie it was suggested that date of birth would be used and if it still matches lot would be used (In 2005-06 when the TN Government discarded TNPCEE marks this happened). This certainly would cause heart-burn among the students. To reduce the probability of many students obtaining same marks TNPCEE is conducted.
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[edit] TNPCEE 2006
After all the controversy about scrapping the TNPCEE, the Tamil Nadu government finally decided to hold it on the 18th and 19th of May 2006.
Initially, all the self-financing and government aided colleges in Tamil Nadu were to admit students considering the cut-off with the TNPCEE marks. Then, by a ruling called the Inaamdar Commission, around 180 self financing colleges decided to break away from the TNPCEE clique and formed the TNSF (Tamil Nadu Self Financing) Consortium. This consortium then conducted an exam called the CET on 15th and 16th of July.
First, this consortium was to fill up 100% of its seats based on a cut-off combining the board marks and the CET marks. But now, by a court ruling, all minority colleges have surrendered 50% of their seats and non-minority colleges have surrendered 70% of their seats to the TNPCEE pool. This means that the CET marks will be used to fill only 50% in minority and 30% in non-minority colleges.
Counselling for general category candidates started on 21st of July 2006. The vacancy positions at the end of each day are shown on the Anna University Website. There is, however, no information brochure available online.
The State Government has been following the rule of 69% reservation for SC/ST/OBC etc. This year, a high court ruling has stated that this reservation should not exceed 50%. Due to this, the excess 19% seats have been allocated in the open category under the title FOC - Fifty percent Open Category. This has led to increased number of seats from self-financing and government colleges for the open category.
Also, there will be no second round of counselling for TNPCEE. Seats that have been taken and discarded will not be available to other deserving students but will be wasted for a year and then offered to diploma holders who are eligible for lateral entry.
COUNSELLING PROCESS
The candidates are divided into time-slots according to their state rank and are required to report at the counselling venue at their allotted slot. Here, they can collect their counselling passes after paying the counselling fee.
The students then go to the "Briefing Hall" where there are two big screens showing the seats that are currently available in all colleges under the TNPCEE. Here, the original certificates are verified and the candidates are called for the actually counselling in order of their state rank.
Once in the counselling room, there are around 40 terminals at which one can make their choice. Each terminal has a person who assists you in the counselling. When you are allotted a terminal, you are supposed to enter your top three choices. Before doing this, you can check up on seat status of various colleges. Once this is done, a screen appears which shows your choices and also how many people above you are yet to click their choices. You will be able to freeze a choice only when students above you in rank have freezed theirs.
Now, as the number of students above you keeps decreasing, if there is a sure chance of your getting your preferred college and branch, that particular choice becomes green indicating that your seat there is assured. On the contrary, if the seats you have chosen are also chosen by a person above you in rank and is not available to you, it turns red and disappears off your screen. When this happens, you can go back and make another choice of college and/or branch. UPDATE: This year and last year, it is unpublicised information that students getting marks below the eligibility criteria are also eligible for counselling. If, for example, 60% is the minimum mark for eligibility, then a person with 59.1% has also been called for counselling. There exists something called the TNEA Co-Ordination Committee which decides this.
[edit] Trivia
The physical science paper carried 10 General Knowledge questions till 1995. After the declaration of the results, the students are called for a counselling in the order of their marks scored for 300. Here the students choose the college and branch that is available to them. Currently the toppers opt for ECE in College of engineeiring,Guindy,Anna university.
In the year 2005, an attempt was made by the erstwhile Tamilnadu government to revoke TNPCEE pattern of engineering admissions. Tamilnadu government, based on the reservation policies, defended that the admission be made solely on the 12’Th standard marks. This brought a lot critics attention who warned that would abysmally lower the engineering education since Plus 2 examinations tests mostly of a student's memory retention whereas TNPCEE tests the student's problem solving capabilities. High court of Chennai quashed this idea of admission. Hence the TNPCEE admission system is back in vogue.1
