Bad to worse: In IIT with 5% in physics

October 12, 2008: The Times of India

New Delhi: Startling but true. Last year, if 15% in mathematics in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), could fetch you a seat in IIT Kanpur, the standards have fallen even lower this year. Even a 5% score in physics, could get you to IIT Kharagpur.
  
The reduction of subject cutoffs to single digits under a procedure introduced in 2007 has allowed less meritorious candidates to get admission into IITs even in the general category. An RTI query has shown the drop in cutoffs has resulted in severe anomalies. The lowest marks in an individual subject among those who made it to the IITs this year were: 10 in maths (6%), 8 in physics (5%) and 15 in chemistry (9%). Why these low marks got them into IITs is because cut offs (the first filter in the selection process) dropped to as little as five in maths, 0 in physics and three in chemistry.
  
The admission of low scorers flies in the face of the seemingly reassuring statistics put up by IIT-Roorkee on its website in August this year. It stated that in the 2008 JEE, marks obtained by the last admitted candidate in the general category were: 63 out of 162 in maths (39%), 72 in physics (44%) and 45 in chemistry (28%).
  
What the website failed to tell us is that some of the candidates who got higher aggregates and ranks actually scored much lower in some subjects compared to the last candidate who made it to the list. Sample this:
  
The last admitted candidate with an All India Rank (AIR) of 6,773 scored a respectable percentage in all the three subjects. In contrast, a candidate with just 6% in maths got an AIR of 5,308. This allowed him to join either IIT-Kharagpur or Roorkee.
  
The candidate who scored just 5% in physics got an AIR of 4,999. He could join IITKharagpur, Guwahati or Roorkee but missed Kanpur by three marks and Bombay by six marks.
  
The candidate who scored 9% in chemistry got an AIR of 2,903, thereby opening the doors for all the IITs. He just needed to pick his choice.
  
An RTI application by Rajeev Kumar, a computer science professor in IIT-Kharagpur, has opened up several such anomalies in the data disclosed by IIT Roorkee.
  
Though the subject cutoffs in JEE have been in single digits since 2007 (as reported first in TOI), the compromise in the quality of intake has worsened this year 
  
The reason why such ridiculously low marks have been fetching IIT seats, is because of a procedure introduced in 2007. Under this, subject cutoffs are 20 percentile, which means the best marks obtained by the bottom 20% of the candidates in each subject.
  
The 2007 procedure was introduced after IIT-Kharagpur faced an embarrassing situation before the Central Information Commission. IITKharagpur was unable to explain the basis for high subject cutoffs in the previous year’s JEE. To redeem this, the IITs adopted a lower cutoff in 2007. Under the new scheme, 20 percentile was taken as the subject cutoff. But this turned out to be imprudent as there was no dearth of candidates in 2008, scoring much higher marks in each subject.
  
Since JEE involves negative marking as well, the 20 percentile formula has yielded single digit cutoffs. This has opened doors for candidates who have performed disastrously in one of the subjects but have done well in the other two. This also meant, those who did well in all three subjects may have lost out, simply because their aggregates were lower.
  
JEE data of the three years since RTI came into force, show IITs could have easily averted such incongruities. This could have been done by taking the subject cutoffs as the least marks of the top 20% candidates instead of the highest marks of the bottom 20% candidates. 
  
When the 80 percentile formula is applied to last three years’ data, the subject cutoffs turn out to be more meaningful (as they range between 21 to 37 marks). At the same time, they yield more than enough candidates to be included in the AIR list on the basis of their aggregates. Since approximately 8,000 are currently ranked, IITs will have almost thrice that many to choose from. Given their global reputation, IITs should rationalize their cutoff procedure for the 2009 JEE. TNN

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