Single Exam Medical

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Version 1.1 Sep. 2010 Page 1 of 7

Single Medical Entrance Exam : A Summary(Proposal submitted to Min. Health & Family Welfare by Rajeev Kumar)

1.Objectives : [Open for updates] A single entrance examination replacing multiplicity of examinations, A single admission counselingto avoid blocking of multiple seats by a student, No infringement of any states own admission rules and quota system, De-stress candidates and minimize coaching, urban-rural bias and gender bias, Examination to be conducted with transparency and accountability.

2. Desired Support form Central/State Education Boards A common science curriculum for XII standard across all the boards by COBSE, A national test authority to streamline and coordinate with states agencies.

3.Salient Features of the Proposal A single-tier single examination for admissions to All India and States medical

colleges including all government and private colleges.

A common merit list in which each candidate is accorded two ranks all Indiaand state rank -- for each category (Common/General, OBC, SC, ST).

Seat reservation in each state is in accordance with applicable laws of the state, Single examination is conducted with 3 subjects Physics, Chemistry and Biology

having equal weights.

Instead of having a one-time performance, take an aggregate of two/threesittings of the examination conducted twice/thrice over a fortnight/month,

Examination is to be of multiple choice objective type with complete andbalanced coverage of Plus 2 curriculum.

Increase the spread of marks by proper setting of questions with multi-levelevaluation (a.k.a. differential grading) in place of the existing binary grading.

Integrated admission counseling(with sliding) to avoid wastage of seats suchthat a student is offered a single seat at time,

Candidates must have a UID to avoid impersonation. With transparency, e.g., sample question, instructions, answer keys, evaluation

scheme, cutoff decision, filled-in seats etc. to be disclosed at appropriate time. Add safeguards, e.g., ORS filling by Pen, carbon copy for self evaluation, use of

trusted softwares and ethics in all operations; eliminate manual operations.

Attendto all errors before the result and other disputes before admission, Continuously improve the processes/protocols with use of technology and

encouraging feedbacks from real stakeholders,

4.Spin-off benefits accruing from a Single Entrance Exam A single examination at the entry point will tremendously help to having a single

exit examination for all MBBS in India for uniformity. Helps in standardization of medical education within the country and abroad.


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Learning from Experiences

A Proposal for a Single Medical Entrance Examination

Aimed @ Merit with Uniformity, Transparency and Accountability

Consequent to Health Ministrys submission before the Apex Court to having a SingleEntrance Examination for Medical Education in the country, this proposal is prepared inpublic interest. The author of this proposal pioneered and gained experience by carryinga comprehensive post-data analysis of marks-data of the past 5-years of some of theentrance examinations, conducted by countrys premier institutes. Some of the findings[1] were widely published in national print media [4].

Since then the group, involving many stakeholders including school-level students, theirparents, school-level teachers, professional colleges faculty, students and alumni,

professionals, social and media persons, RTI activists, public watch-dogs and NGOs, isworking on definingprocesses and protocols so that such examinations are conducted --- (i) by de-stressing the candidates, (ii) by eliminating discrepancies which canpossibly unknowingly plague any examination [1-2], (iii) in which merit is based onobjective criteria [3], and (iv) with transparency and accountability [1]. A few versionsof such proposals in the past couple of years are included at [1-3].

In view of the above, a working proposal, which possibly suits the Health Ministry intheir mission of having a Single Entrance Examination, is drafted by defining a few ofthe objectives. In rest of this concept (white) paper, we highlight the issues and suggest

workable solutions. All the proposed solutions, in the form of processes and protocols,can be accomplished with minor changes in the existing system at little additional cost.

It is recommended that there should be separate examinations, one each for medicalentrance and engineering entrance. This is necessitated for not having at dis-advantagethose students who appear for both the examinations, otherwise students appearing forthe both have to sit for 4 papers adding to their extra preparation and stress factor, incontrast to three papers for those who will sit for one discipline alone. Additionally,engineering and medical can have different weights for their subjects.

The proposal, as defined below, may kindly be considered as the Base Proposal, and isopen for discussion and update based on projected objectives and needs.

The Proposal

1. Every medical seat aspirant should be issued a UID to avoid impersonation.2. It is the best have a single examination (replacing all the existing AIIMS, AIPMT,

many others states and private colleges examination).


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3. Many states have their own reservation rules for admission to different categoryof candidates. Different caste composition is included in OBC list of different states.Some colleges have their own rules for management and NRI quota.

To incorporate the admissions based on the above, each aspirant is assignedtwo ranks, in each category (Common/General, OBC, SC, ST), based on his/her

obtained score one for All India Seats and another state rank for the state seatsbased on the domicile of the candidates and quota rules of the state. The admissionfor each of the all India seats and state seats is based on respective quota/ruleswithout infringing states rights.

It is desired that the aspirants seeking admission from management/NRIquota seats should also appear in the examination and seek admission for suchrank-free seats, though without caring their rank. This move is for assessing suchcandidates.

4. Due to multiple examinations and multiple admission counseling, a singlecandidate takes admission in multiple colleges. Many seats lye vacant in spite ofcut throat competition, this is a national/states waste, though some of such seatswere filled by multiple rounds of admissions. Yet, many seats remained vacant, indifferent stages of admission, in spite of huge demands of such seats.

Therefore, it is proposed to make counseling integrated and fully on-line forall India and state colleges. A student feeds his choices, in order of the preferences,and gets admission on availability. An offered seat is slided up as per the choicesfilled of the candidate.

Publish filled-in and vacant seats on day-to-day basis. Prepare a wait list

during admission counseling and fill/upgrade seats by sliding. Set deadline forstudents to join, else allot those seats to wait-listed candidates.

5. The single test is conducted with three subjects of PCB (Physics, Chemistry andBiology). Test should have equal weights for all the three.

6. The existing CBSEs medical entrance examination, the AIPMT is a two-tierexamination one, a screeningfollowed by a main examination. Such a two-tierexamination was the need when the main examination was of long-question-answer format. Such a long question-answer format examination is no more in

AIPMT. Hence, a two-tier examination, like AIPMT, in which both theexaminations have multiple choice questions (MCQ), has no relevance now. Mostother examinations, e.g., AIIMS and most others, are of single-tier based onmultiple choice questions (MCQ).

No doubt the long-question-answer format is excellent because it can bettertest a candidates ability, however, its impractical due to two reasons (i) such asystem cannot be for a population segment which is composed of millions ofmedical aspirants, and (ii) such manual and subjective evaluation is error pronewhich losses its relevance in a highly competitive examination.

Therefore, a single-tier examination based on multiple choice questions(MCQ) is proposed.


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7. Most of the entrance examinations are a one-time examination, i.e., theperformance of an aspirant isjudged byhis total burning during a single 3-hourperiod; his destiny is decided by this single performance. Its very likely that astudent may have an off-day or a sick-day, he/she does not get another chanceexcept in the following year.

As per the currently prevailing practice being adopted in some onlineexaminations, like BITSAT, CAT, the same examination is spread over a longerperiod in which a student can sit any time within the period. Such a flexiblearrangement does not ensure to have the same complexity of question papers. Thenormalization to minimize the complexity quotient of question papers is attemptedin, e.g., CAT etc., this cannot be of use in an examination having cut-throatcompetition and having a single objective criterion.

Therefore, to counter a one-time phenomenon, a novel concept of two to threesittings of the same examination, which is conducted twice or thrice over afortnight/month is proposed. Then, an aggregated score over such two/three

sitting will be considered for the final ranking.

8. Examination should have the Common Plus 2 curriculum. Thus, school level andentrance examinations have the same uniform curriculum and thus a studentcannot afford to ignore Plus 2, students will concentrate for school levelexamination too. This may reduce dependence on coaching.

9. At times, some of questions are unnecessarily complex, some questions do not testmuch of analytical or conceptual knowledge, and/or questions do not have propercoverage.

Therefore, the care should be taken for setting correct, unambiguous andwithin the syllabi Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).

10.The main drawback of MCQ format is that the evaluation is based on binarygrading, which is often criticized for not testing much of the skills of an aspirant. Incontrast, long question-answer format is the best though the evolution is subjectiveand is error prone; also this scheme cannot be scaled.

Therefore, we introduce a novel multi-level grading (a.k.a. differentialgrading) to test intelligence in MCQs. Each option of the MCQ can be assigneddifferent marks, in positive or negative, based on its closeness to the correct

solution.

Such a scheme, which is not based on binary evaluation, will yield theevaluation quality akin to testing long question-answer format.

This strategy will also take care of wrong setting of questions, if any, withoutmaking it open, in which all the options are assigned marks in accordance to thecloseness of the correct option. This strategy will help those aspirants who put timein attempting a wrongly set question.

11.Most of the entrance examinations, in general, have a heavily skewed marksdistribution, which is essentially a bimodal marks distribution, a fewhundred/thousand candidates score decent marks for many thousand seats; most


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others are in the other. Therefore, scoring of marks for most such aspirants, in othermode, can be contributed to random selection of choices in MCQs.

Thus, the multi-level grading scheme does have other spin-off benefits. Thescheme will make dispersion of marks wider. This scheme is expected to improveselection quality, which otherwise is partly due to random selection of choices.

12.In spite of the transparency age, some of the examination bodies, including AIIMSand CBSEs AIPMT, do not disclose the answer keys after the examination. Thereare a few reports of having wrong model answers when such answer keys weredisclosed. However, many of the coaching institutes do disclose the answer-keys onthe same day of the examination and thus, making the aspirants a soft target to jointhem in future.

Therefore, it is proposed that the model answers and answer-keys should bedisclosed, after the examination, on the same day of the examination. Then, invitepublic to send feedback regarding correctness within a week and freeze the

answers for final evaluation. This is the practice used in some states, e.g., CET inKarnataka. Some states, like, UP-CPMT does disclose the answer-keys though theydo not ask for the public feedback. Such practice will reduce dependence oncoaching.

13.Some of the examinations require that the marking of Optical Response Sheet(ORS) is filled by a HB pencil has a possibility that the filling can be dim/faint, andthus the ORS is rejected by the scanner. Additionally, there is a possibility oftampering. Such bodies do not adopt any additional safeguards to avoidtampering. There have been reports of tampering of the ORS. Some bodies require

that the ORS is filled through a black ball pen and have allowances for a change ofthe choice. None of these techniques are truly tampering proof.

Therefore, additional safeguards should be taken in terms of coatingbackside of ORS with a carbon film to ascertain any tampering. A carbon duplicateof the ORS can be retained by the candidate as a proof and for precisely calculatingthe score by self-evaluation from the disclosed answer-keys.

14.Safeguards should be taken to ensure trustworthiness of all the software used in JEE operations along with soft data integrity. Do not entrust the raw and codeddata in a single hand. Personal identity of the candidate should not be revealed.

Improve ethics. Do not repeat same set of people for question setting,computer experts and administration.Randomly allocate examination centre. Takefinger prints at the time of application, examination, counseling and admission toavoid impersonation. Strengthen vigilance.

15.Conduct examination with complete transparency. For example,Disclose complete information at appropriate time, e.g., disclose marks and ORS

with result declaration so that errors, if any, can be corrected immediately.

Make all decisions, including cutoff decisions, if any, open.Make question format along with all the instructions public, a priori.


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Disclose a set of sample question papers.16.It is suggested that the question paper should go through as few people as possible.

For this it is suggested that the question paper should be printed in English,instead of publishing in all vernacular languages. This being an importantdecision is open for discussion.

17.Currently the preliminary examination of AIPMT is conducted on the first Sundayof April and then the result is announced within 2-weeks. The main AIPMT isconducted during middle of May and final result is declared within a week.

Since CBSE takes just 2-week time in publishing the result. Though, with asingle examination for all the stares, the total number of candidates will increasedrastically. Then, it is expected that a 4-week time is sufficient to make a final list.Since counseling usually does not start before late June, it is advisable thatexamination should be delayed as much as possible to allow candidates get asmuch time as possible after their Plus Two examination.

Having the same curriculum of Plus 2 and deferring the entrance examinationas much as possible, a candidate can reasonably well do additional preparationneeded for entrance examination. Yet, there would be enough time left for resultand admission.

18.Change the mindset from feudal to facilitator. Correct the errors, if any, instantlyrather than taking a legal shield and/or changing the rules after the examination isover. Settle disputes, in house, during the period from result declaration tocounseling. All records must be kept till disposal of disputes. Attend to errors

rather then repeating all is well though it is universally known, at times, that allis not well.

19.Encourage involvements of real stakeholders candidates, parents, school-levelteachers in decision making of the entrance examination.

20.Continuously improve the processes/protocols with use of technology and basedon feedbacks from real stakeholders.

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References ::

[1] A Proposal to Strengthen IIT JEE. http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~rkumar/JEEProposal_Oct08.pdf, October 2008.

[2] A Brief Proposal to Reforming and Strengthening JEE. http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~rkumar/JEEReforms_Feb10.pdf, February 2010.

[3] Another Alternative to IIT JEE, AIEEE and State JEEs. http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~rkumar/JEEReformProposal_RK.pdf, July 2010.

[4] An Eklavya Blog. http://eklavyajee06.blogspot.com/* * *

Acknowledgements :: The author gratefully acknowledges receiving inputs, comments,suggestions and feedbacks, while working on many versions of such proposals in thepast four years, from many stakeholders including school-level students, their parents,


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school-level teachers, professional colleges faculty, students and alumni, professionals,social and media persons, RTI activists, public watch-dogs and NGOs.

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Authors Bio :: Rajeev Kumar (Ph.D.) is currently a professor of computer science andengineering at IIT Kharagpur. He had served as a professor of computer science at Birla

Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani. Prior to that, he worked as a scientist inDefence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and also in Survey of India,Department of Science & Technology. He did his higher studies from University ofAllahabad, University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) and University of Sheffield, UK. Hehas published above 150 research articles in international journals and conferenceproceedings of repute. He is a professional senior member of ACM USA, a seniormember of IEEE USA and a fellow of IETE India.

Since the enactment of RTI Act, he is working on research and analysis of entranceexamination data, which resulted in astonishing revelations and disclosures. His effortsare the prime mover to make conduct of such examinations, with transparency andaccountability, a national issue. His pioneering efforts for a single examination, singleadmission counseling without infringing any states own rules and quota system, aregaining momentum. His introduction of multi-level grading in place of binary grading inmultiple-choice questions (MCQs) can drastically change selection scenario. Theconcerned examination bodies are working on reforming their processes and protocols.Additionally, he is one of the main authors to draft the revised guidelines foraccreditating Undergraduate Engineering Programs in the Country, which wereapproved by National Board of Accreditation (NBA), India in July 2009 and are in usenow. He is a recipient of Best RTI citizen (runner-up) award 2009 for enforcing

disclosures in public interest.

More details on http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~rkumar/ andhttp://eklavyajee06.blogspot.com/

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Single Exam Medical