KEAM, the State’s engineering and pharmacy entrance examination, may go online and be held in multiple sessions from next year.
A proposal submitted by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to restructure the annual examination as a single-paper computer-based test (CBT) is being considered by the State government. The comprehensive plan was presented by Higher Education Minister R. Bindu, while replying to a question by P. Ubaidulla (IUML) in the Assembly.
The CEE has mooted combining both papers (Paper 1 – Physics and Chemistry and Paper 2 - Mathematics) similar to the structure of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main. The three-hour-long examination will comprise 30 questions each from the three subjects and carry a total of 300 marks.
Considering the existing availability of centres that are equipped to conduct CBTs, the examination could be held in multiple batches. Over 1.02 lakh candidates had appeared for the KEAM 2021 examination held two months ago.
Replicating other national-level entrance tests, KEAM could be held twice a year to provide candidates an opportunity to improve their scores, avoid the need to wait for a year to repeat the examination, and benefit those who missed the first examination due to reasons beyond their control. While the CEE has proposed holding the examinations in January and May, the highest score will be taken for compiling the rank list.
The rank list could be prepared on the basis of percentile scores instead of the actual marks scored in the entrance examination.
On the basis of an Expression of Interest (EoI) invited by the CEE, six service providers are being considered for the purpose of conducting the CBT. The State-run Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) is among the firms that have evinced interest.
The maximum number of examination nodes (networked devices) they have identified in the State range from 10,000 to 20,619, thereby indicating the need to conduct the examination in multiple sessions and later standardise the marks to prepare the rank list.
