CHENNAI: Browsing through the statistics released by the CBSE pertaining to the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) may have you believe that the online version of the test has indeed caught on within a year of its launch. From a mere 4,900 who opted for the online test last year, the nation-wide figure has rocketed to 1.96 lakh this year. However, this jump hardly represents the emotions at ground level, where the preference seems to be for the traditional pen and paper test. A number of AIEEE aspirants in the city who spoke to City Express, say that given a chance they would shun the online test as multiple factors work against obtaining good results in such a format. According to them, the decision of the CBSE to make online tests compulsory for students from big cities came as a rude shock last year, forcing them to change their strategy. Most of them had started their preparations as early as in Class IX and getting mentally set for a change in format was a hard task. “Over the last three years I took thousands of preparatory tests in my coaching centre in the paper format. When they announced the shift in format we had to make a lot of tweaks such as practising without taking notes,” says Harish Vasudevan, student of a private CBSE school. While the nature of questions and the syllabus for the online examination are no different from those of the paper format, it is the unfamiliarity of taking tests on the computer that has evoked fear in the minds of the aspirants. Raghavendra, a student of Gill Adarsh Matriculation, says that he and most of his friends underwent coaching at small tutorials where their own school teachers coached them. “The centre I went to for three years did not have even a single computer. Even after online tests were made compulsory, we could not work online as we were unable to afford the fee at big coaching organisations,” he says. Though some took the decision to register at centres outside Chennai, especially in Puducherry where the paper format was still available, most say such an attempt would be stressful. “When you attend the test, you need to keep your mind stress-free. Travelling hundreds of kilometres for the exam is not worth it,” says Samson, who is taking the test on May 12. Others expressed apprehensions about the prevailing power situation, arguing that a power cut would cause panic. “Many centres are located on the city’s fringes. Any break during the sessions will hurt our concentration,” says Harish.
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