I read this article today: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/JEE_fails_to_get_the_best_IIT_dons/articleshow/3307741.cms. Atleast some IIT profs seem to think that the whole thing needs to be revamped.
“I am looking for students with raw intelligence and not those with a mind prepared by coaching class tutors. The coaching classes only help students in mastering (question paper) pattern recognizing skills. With this, you cannot get students with raw intelligence,” said IIT-Madras director, M S Ananth.
JEE, as it stands today, is an exam that tests the skills of a student in physics, chemistry and math. I really wonder if we can measure raw intelligence by testing physics, chemistry and math skills of a person. I was never really bright enough to clear JEE in my late teens. So I had to make peace with the fact that I wont ever be an IITian. But even then I used to hate the fact that I had to learn chemistry to clear JEE. I really saw no purpose for learning chemistry. I always wanted to be a software developer; and never saw the reason to even know chemistry. (More over the chemistry profs at BASE were IMHO egoistic pigs who thought knowing chemical equations was akin to knowing how to live life). The chemistry course was based more on memory and non-sense reasoning than anything else. Physics taught me how to think, Math taught me how to solve. Chemistry, well, taught me nothing. I dont think we can pick up anything worthwhile for life from chemistry; unless we want to become egoistic profs at BASE/IIT or are interested in doing research (in chemistry only of-course).
I personally feel that, if Prof. Ananth wants raw intelligence, IIT/JEE exams must do away with chemistry atleast. It is a non-sense subject with no real value addition to life.
“The overall capability of a student cannot be merely
assessed by their performance in physics, mathematics and chemistry. The student
must have good communication skills also,” Idichandy said.
Finally something that makes sense. Idichandy is absolutely right here, I think. I dont know if it is a co-incidence, but quite a few IITians that I have met so far have exhibited excellent communication skills. Probably removing chemistry and testing communication skills would be a good idea 🙂 I really hope that “testing communication skills” doesnt become a “super-complex course on English Literature”.
Customary note: Dont start a flame war now, there are my opinions and if yours are different – __thats fine__; we are both different people.