EAMCET, which stands for Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test, is an entrance examination required for admission to some engineering and medical colleges in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Many other colleges offering graduation courses like BDS, B.Pharm., BSc., Pharm.D. etc. require qualification in this exam. The coaching industry for the EAMCET is estimated at nearly Rs.500 crore (approximately $110 million) a year.
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The EAMCET is a yearly examination taken by a large number of engineering and medical aspirants in Andhra Pradesh. Presently the JNTU located in Hyderabad conducts the examination. This is the entrance exam for engineering ('E' category) and medicine ('AM' category: Agriculture and Medicine). The results are declared over 13 or 14 days every year making the counseling and admission process smooth.
In 2007, around 185,000 students took the Engineering stream and around 90,000 students in the Medical & Agricultural stream.
EAMCET 2009 was held on 14 May 2009, conducted by JNTU on behalf of APSCHE. From 2009 onwards 25% weightage is being given to 10+2 results. The rank will be based on 75% EAMCET marks and 25% intermediate marks (ICSE, CBSE or INTERMEDIATE). Around 311,355 students in Engineering and 65,357 students in Medicine appeared in EAMCET 2009.
In 2010, the EAMCET was conducted on 30 May. This delay was mainly due to the Telangana agitation in the previous months that badly disturbed the teaching schedule of many junior colleges as well as due to the Kurnool floods. This examination saw 367,269 students appearing with 328,359 in the engineering stream and 51,186 in medicine. The 'E' category exam was from 10.00am to 1.00pm while the 'AM' category exam was from 2.30 pm to 5.30pm.
The format of the test had to be changed many times to make it fair for all students. An expert committee constituted by the state's Department of Education decides how the test is conducted.
The test has 160 questions with 40 marks for each subject (Maths A/Botany, Maths B/Zoology, Physics and Chemistry). Physics and Chemistry question papers are different for E and AM categories though the syllabus is the same.
The questions are of multiple-choice type with four options. Many models of questions may be given like match the following, choose the correct statement, assertion-reason and multiple-correct types. Students have to fill the circles given in the OMR sheet with their answer. Two or more answers or blanks will be regarded as incorrect. There is no negative marking.
Of late, several institutions that train aspirants for the exam have mushroomed all over Andhra Pradesh. The exorbitant fees charged by these institutions have raised concerns about education being unaffordable for many students. The EAMCET coaching industry is estimated at nearly Rs 5,000 crore a year.
Of the 17 lakh students who join intermediate courses, 80 percent join in MPC and BiPC groups to secure an admission rank in the EAMCET.
Several corporate and private junior colleges have sprung up in the last 20 years to cash in on the EAMCET craze among students and parents. They are doing whatever they can to ensure that the intermediate weightage does not pose a danger to the test in the long run. Moreover, the managements of private engineering colleges are lobbying against any increase in intermediate weightage. As many as 30,000 students who qualified in the EAMCET faced disqualification after 25 percent weightage was added to their score due to their inter results.[1]
The minimum eligibility required to appear for EAMCET are:
The qualifying percentage of marks in the Entrance Test is 25%, i.e., 40 out of 160. However, for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, no minimum qualifying mark is prescribed. But their admission will be limited to the extent of seats reserved for such categories.[2]
Every student will be allotted a state-level rank based on his or her marks scored in the EAMCET. Quite often there will be ties with many students scoring the same number of marks. In such cases, the candidate scoring more marks in Maths/Biology will be awarded the higher rank. If the tie persists, the candidate scoring more marks in Physics will be awarded the higher rank. If the tie still persists, the candidate of higher age will be awarded the higher rank. In recent years, a difference of one mark has often resulted in dropping rank by 500 or more.
From 2009 onwards, online counseling has been started for Engineering students. The students are to submit their required documents at the prescribed office first and then will be provided with an account to log in at the counseling website. The student will have to enter a list of colleges he or she prefers to take admission into along with the course, in the decreasing order of preference. The higher rank is most likely to get into the college of his first preference and the chances decrease as the rank lowers.
For Medicine students, a traditional method of counseling is followed. The NTR Health University publishes advertisements in all major newspapers regarding the dates of counseling for different ranks.
EAMCET results for 2010 can be obtained from the following websites:
Colleges that admit students under the counseling based on EAMCET ranks fall under these university regions: