Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test

Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test, commonly called as EAMCET, is an entrance examination required for admission to some engineering and medical colleges in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India. Many other colleges offering graduation courses like BDS, B.Pharm., BSc., Pharm.D. , B.E, B. Tech, etc. require qualification in this exam. The coaching industry for the EAMCET is estimated at nearly Rs. 50 billion (approximately $110 million) a year.

Examination

The EAMCET is a yearly examination taken by a large number of engineering and medical aspirants in Andhra Pradesh. Presently the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) 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.This exam is based on "Multiple choice Questions" type.

In 2007, around 185,000 students took the Engineering stream and around 90,000 students in the Medical & Agricultural stream.

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.

2010

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.mbbs bachelor of medicine

2013

In 2013, the EAMCET was scheduled to be conducted on 10 May. According to a report by The Hindu, 2013 EAMCET received the highest number of applications. 396,143 students wrote for Eamcet exam at nearly 735 Centers located in the state, among them 291,078 students were registered for Engineering stream and 105,065 from Medical stream.Over 80,000 students from Hyderabad alone have taken the test.Though the results of EAMCET 2013 was announced on 5 June the counseling could not begin as scheduled on 17 June,as the fees of the colleges were not fixed.Consortium of engineering and Professional Colleges Managements association (CEPCMA) wanted a hike in fee for admission into engineering colleges for next three academic years following an increase in the expenditure.The government appointed admission and Fee Regulatory committee(AFRC)to decide the fee structure for the engineering colleges and based on that it sought proposals from the colleges. The AFRC has to decide the fee structure based on the available infrastructure facilities.due this delay many students opted universities and college outside Andhra Pradesh.Lastly High court of AP ordered the start of the counseling on 19 Aug with a prior Notification in Public,Though the document verification started smoothly in Help line centers located Telangana Region, The scenario was disrupted in Seemandhra Region following the protest against the bifurcation of the state.The Help line centers did not function for which the convener of Eamcet arranged additional Help line centers(HLC) in order to speed up the document verification process.It is said that the Option entry in the Web counseling Site,would not start unless all the students complete the document verification at the help Line centers

2014

In 2014, the EAMCET exam was conducted on 22 May. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the EAMCET counselling after the state of Andhra Pradesh was split into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The APSCHE( AP State council for Higher Education) has issued the notification for counselling starting August 1 August of the academic year and all seats should be positively filled by 15 August. The Telangana government has filed a suit in Supreme court to delay the counselling. The Supreme Court on Monday 1 August 2014 reserved verdict on Telangana State’s application seeking extension of the time schedule for counselling for admissions to engineering and medicine for 2014-15 till 31 October. The Supreme court has made it clear that it could extend the counselling for one month and not beyond 31 August. The bench also said there could be no question of preference being given to `locals’ in admission to colleges within Telangana.[1]

Format

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.

Coaching

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 50 billion a year.

Of the 1.7 million 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.

Eligibility

The minimum eligibility required to appear for EAMCET are:

Special Reservation

Physically handicapped (PH) :

3% horizontal reservation in each category (OC/BC/SC/ST) for Visually Handicapped/Hearing Impaired/Orthopaedically Handicapped (each 1%).

Children of Armed Personnel (CAP) :

2% for the children of Armed Personnel i.e. Ex-Servicemen, Defence Personnel including the children of Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police (CRPF),who are permanent resident of Andhra Pradesh are only eligible to claim this reservation.

National Cadet Corps (NCC) :

1% for National Cadet Corps Candidates.

Sports & Games (SP) :

0.5% for Sports and Games candidates.

The following percentage of seats in each course in each institute are reserved in Unaided Professional Non-Minority Institutions in Category A seats for the following categories

   oc : 0
   SC : 15%
   ST : 6%
   BC : 25% (Other Backward Class)

For Women :

Reservation of seats for women: There shall be reservation of 33% i.e. 1/3rd of the seats in favor of women candidates in each course and in each category (OC/SC/ST/BC/CAP/NCC/SP/PH). This reservation shall not be applicable if women candidates are selected on merit in each category even if it exceeds 33%. If sufficient number of women candidates are not available in the respective categories, those seats shall be diverted to the men candidates of the same category.

Qualifying marks for EAMCET 2014

The qualifying percentage of marks in the Entrance Test is 20%, 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]

Results and admission procedure

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 on wards, 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.

But it is likely that eamcet will be replaced by other competitive exams in upcoming years.

Colleges under EAMCET

Colleges that admit students under the counseling based on EAMCET ranks fall under these university regions:

References

  1. ↑ "Supreme court orders to Finish EAMCET counselling by August 31". Deccan-Journal. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "vide G.O.Ms. No. 179, LEN&TE, dated 16.06.1986." (PDF). Retrieved 30 January 2012.