ISEET (Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test) is the proposed one-for-all national level entrance exams for admissions in the science & engineering institutes of India. ISEET is scheduled to be held from 2013 onwards. 

If and when that happens, ISEET 2013 is set to replace the current national engineering entrance exams like IIT-JEE, AIEEE etc. for admissions to centrally funded institutions such as the 15 IITs, 30 NITs and a host of other technical institutes. If the state govt. opts in, may be even state level engineering entrance exams like EAMCET, Karnataka CET, Maharashtra CET  would be replaced by ISEET 2013..

Since this is a new development and is going to affect student community all across the country, this blog article is being made to tell you what ISEET is and what is its current status. Before going further on ISEET 2013, let me tell you that this exam is still in conceptual stage and much info provided here (compiled from different websites) may change, when the exam finally arrives.

What is ISEET:

ISEET is the latest entrance exam being initiated by Ministry of HRD, Govt of India to bring in unification in science & engineering entrance exams in India. Objective of ISEET is to ease the problem of students having to appear in multiple entrance exams for multiple science & engineering institute admissions.

Prior to ISEET, HRD ministry had brought in two other such unification entrance exams – CMAT for management entrance exam & NEET for medical entrance exam. Of this while CMAT (Common Management Aptitude Test) was held for the first time from 20th-29th February, 2012, NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) could not be held due to stiff opposition from various quarters like state Govt., medical colleges, student parents etc. NEET has been postponed now and is scheduled to be held from 2013 only onwards. You can find more about CMAT & NEET from following two articles of mine:

AICTE CMAT 2012 Date Notification, Eligibility & Forms

No NEET UG 2012: NEET UG from 2013 only

What is the current status of ISEET 2013:

ISEET at this time is at a conceptual stage only. While the idea has been floated by HRD ministry, there are oppositions from many quarters – most notably from IITs. The objection from IIT-fraternity is on three grounds:

1.0 ISEET comprising solely of objective type questions.

2.0 Use of weightage formula to consider the class XII board performance.

3.0 IITs would like to retain control over ISEET while the government's proposal gives CBSE the mandate to conduct these test

Source: Economic Times.

As per this news item by Hindustan Times, Ministry of HRD is going to meet the IIT Chairmen and members of the AIIFF (All India IIT Faculty Federation) tomorrow (on 11th April, 2012) to thrash out a solution to this vexed problem.

Proposed structure/format of ISEET 2013 pattern:

As of now, ISEET 2013 pattern proposed is as follows:

40% weightage for Class-XII board result.

60% weightage for marks scored in the two papers of ISEET – Paper-I: ISEET Main & Paper-II: ISEET Advance.

Paper-I (ISEET Main) would be an aptitude test to test the logical & reasoning skills.

Paper-II (ISEET Advance) would be a scholastic test for knowledge in Physics, Chemistry & Maths.

Both the papers are going to be of Objective type and of duration 3 hour each. Marks are still to be finalized.

While the ratio of distribution of 60% weightage among ISEET papers is still to be fixed, as per some media reports, for IITs the weightage would be 30% to ISEET-Main and 30% to ISEET Advance. While for NITs the ratio is:  40% to ISEET Main and 20% to ISEET Advance. But these are unconfirmed reports.

Will ISEET 2013 be held?

Big question every engineering aspirants are having at this moment is: Will ISEET 2013 be held or will it meet the same fate as aborted NEET UG 2012? This question is very important for them, since if ISEET 2013 is held, they will have to prepare for the ISEET 2013 exam pattern accordingly.

The answer to this question is still evolving, but however if you go through this MHRD press release on State Education Ministers’ Conference held at New Delhi on 22nd February, 2012, you would note following three information, which I quote from the press release:

1.0 After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination with effect from 2013 with weightage to State  Board results, normalized on the basis of percentiles formula, was endorsed “in principle” by States.

2.0 The States of Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal in detail. The States may decide on adopting the same pattern for admission to State-level engineering institutions with appropriate weightages as States may think fit. 

3.0 It was decided that the details for the common examination process would be finalized in the next two months in consultation with States.

Thus from above official information on ISEET 2013 from MHRD we have come to know that the ISEET 2013 would be held, although some states has sought more time and all these would be finalized within coming two months - say by June 2012.

So my advice to the student is to expect ISEET 2013 to be held, although she/he should not be worried too much about the changes. At this moment of time, concentrate on your board exam syllabus (since if ISEET 2013 is held, it will constitute minimum 40%) and also prepare for IIT-JEE/ AIEEE in the existing structure. You will have plenty of time to adjust to the exam pattern of ISEET as and when that happens.

Keep visiting this blog as I am going to incorporate all the latest info on ISEET 2013 like: notification, eligibility/ pattern/ forms etc.