Experts from American testing giant Educational Testing Service (ETS) will soon be in India to coach dons of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on how to conduct aptitude examinations at the undergraduate level.

The development follows a discussion between Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal and experts at Educational Testing Service in the US to share their research on aptitude testing with India, which plans to start a common exam for entry to all undergraduate level technical institutes, including the IITs, by 2013.

“The major challenge before us in conducting the proposed common test for admission to all technical courses is to factor into the exam design India’s diversity and elements that will ensure parity across school boards. We also have to ensure there is no disadvantage on account of the rural-urban divide. The ETS has agreed to share with us its research on design of such examinations. We will look at that and take it from there. Research sharing will be at zero cost,” sources in HRD Ministry today told The Tribune.

On November 18, ETS experts will be in the Capital to conduct a workshop on aptitude testing for the IITs and CBSE examination team. The workshop will deal with the challenges of designing and conducting a SAT-type test in India. Directors of all 15 IITs, chairmen, Joint Entrance Exam, chairman of GATE (which IITs conduct) and the CBSE’s core team will attend the workshop.

“We do not have expertise in conducting aptitude tests. Our Joint Entrance Exam for entry to IITs tests subject knowledge and is restrictive. We hope to learn from the ETS in three fields -- organisation and management of the aptitude test as and when India introduces it; design of the test and processing of answer scripts,” Prof Sanjay Dhande, Director of IIT Kanpur today told TNS.

At present, the AIEEE conducted by the CBSE for entry to technical colleges, is the largest entrance test in the country with about 11 lakh students appearing in it. The JEE is taken by around 4 lakh students a year. Once a common test is introduced, the scale of testing would increase manifold as every student will take just one test for entry to the college system.

WHY ETS

• US-based Educational Testing Service is the largest examination conducting body in the world
• It assesses 20 million students annually through 15,000 tests, its flagship test being SAT to select students for various undergraduate courses ‘
• India’s proposed common engineering entrance test is scheduled to have a component on aptitude testing on the lines of SAT
• Indian exam conducting bodies like Joint Admission Board for IIT-JEE and CBSE for AIEEE do not have aptitude testing capability
  
  
  Source: The Tribune.