JIPMER Entrance test : Focus on English as well, says JIPMER Director

Puducherry: Nearly 1 lakh,89 thousand,6 hundred and 62 aspiring medical students will be appearing for JIPMER's Undergraduate Entrance Test scheduled for June 4. Considered to be at par with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), 200 seats will be competed for, by those appearing for this test.

With the exam round the bend, JIPMER's Director S.C. Parija and Dean (Academic) R. P. Swaminathan during an interaction with The Hindu shared ways of attempting it well. As applicants appearing for the exam are growing in number and the competition to clear, getting tougher, the Director, JIPMER lay emphasis on doing well in the English and Reasoning test worth 20 marks as well. He felt a good score in it would help improve rank.

"Students tend to concentrate more on preparing for physics, chemistry and biology than the English language paper. Though it constitutes only 20 marks, it is important to equally focus on English as well. If students score well in other subjects and lose out in English paper, their ranking would go down," he added.

Of the 200 seat slot- 50 fall on the Karaikal campus while a 150 are available on the Puducherry campus. The examination based on single best response system, ruling out negative marking.The exam is to be conducted at 339 examination centers in 75 cities all across the country. A committee constituting of experts from all parts of the country formulate the test paper. "The level of difficulty of the exam is at par with 12th exams. The student must work really hard and have a strong understanding of the basics in order to ace the exam," added Dr. Swaminathan.

"The level of difficulty of the exam is at par with 12th exams. The student must work really hard and have a strong understanding of the basics in order to ace the exam," added Dr. Swaminathan.

Citing online availability of the exam as the reason for the increasing aspirant numbers, Dr. Parija clarified that the JIPMER management was not keen on increasing the number of seats.

An aspirant, said: "I have been working hard in the past month and have been referring to the books suggested by the coaching classes. I will give it my best shot.Students appearing for the test have been to coaching classes and referred to mock question papers to clear the exam. "

The students are supposed to have a 50% percentile in their class 12 exam to be eligible for it, reports The Hindu.