JEE (Mains): Covid no deterrent for them

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 1

Nearly 161 Class XII passouts from the city took the JEE B Arch-2020 online examination at the centre of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Saffron Mall on the NH-1 on Tuesday.

Principal of Police DAV Public School Rashmi Vij is the nodal officer for the examination, which was held in two shifts – from 9 am to 12 noon and from 2 pm to 5 pm. Though the centre has two halls with a capacity of 500 work stations each, students were made to sit in gaps leaving a system so as to maintain social distance owing to the pandemic.

While 85 students took the exam in the first shift, only 66 students appeared for the second shift. A total of 174 students were expected to take the examination, of which 13 students remained absent. From Wednesday, the JEE Mains would be taken in the same centre for five consecutive days in two shifts.

Students attempted 70 questions in three hours and most of them said they could attempt the paper well in time.

Manvir Singh, a passout from MGN Public School, said: “The paper was of average difficulty level. I had plenty of time for revision. While 68 questions were to be attempted online, we had to take two questions of drawing using paper. We took our own colour pencils to make the drawings.”

Manvir expressed satisfaction over the fact that the examination got postponed owing to Covid, “I got plenty of time to prepare after my board exams. I had taken no tuitions for this and used YouTube and the internet for making all preparation by myself”.

Tarun Bhardwaj, a passout of Police DAV Public School, had a different opinion over the postponement of examination. “The delay in examination broke the entire momentum of preparation. Our tuitions were paused. The routine of taking mock tests, that I had been taking, also took a hit. So, all these factors led to some loss in studies,” he fumed, adding that if at all examination were to be held in the same condition, they should have been held well in time by June or July.

Samarth Arora, another candidate, expressed satisfaction over the arrangements at the centre.

“Coming out of home that, too, at a mall after a long time had made me a bit skeptical, as to whether it would be safe to take the examination that too when Covid is spreading at an alarming speed. But thankfully, I was comfortable. We were made to sanitise our hands at every step and take our own transparent water bottles. Arrangements of maintaining social distance were also proper. Even the way of conducting examination was satisfactory and I was able to complete the paper 18 minutes before time. Now, I have my B Tech entrance in the same centre a day after.”

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