Online AIEEE smooth, say candidates

CHENNAI: Abhishek Varadarajan had his heart in his mouth for a few minutes when the computer on which he was answering the online All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) suddenly logged off without  warning.“For a moment I panicked and raised a cry. But operators restored the screen in no time with the questions I had already answered neatly saved,” said Abhishek, who gave the test at a centre in Ambattur on Monday.Apart from a few tense moments caused by technical glitches, a number of candidates, who took the online test on Monday, said there was hardly any difference in the nature of questions when compared to the offline versions. This year, the online test was made compulsory by CBSE for all tier-1 cities, including Chennai. According to the candidates, the pattern of the test was similar to the offline version held in smaller towns on April 29. The examination had 90 questions divided into three sections — Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.Most students said the Maths section was the easiest, with almost all questions demanding straight-forward answers. But, this was more than compensated by the Physics section, which candidates said, took a lot of time to complete.“We had very tricky questions, where more than one concept had to be applied. This took a lot of time,” said Rekha Das, who took the exam at a centre in Avadi. Queries on organic chemistry were also on the tougher side, she said.Students said faults in computers were perturbing. While the screens of some of them switched off without warning, others had to deal with malfunctioning mouses.But, the platform used for the test had enough safety measures against glitches, with the file getting saved on the server every time an answer is completed. This also ensured they did not lose time when it was restarted. Candidates were critical about tests being held in outskirts of the city. Many argued that they had to start out very early in order to reach the centres on time. “Most students who take the test are from CBSE schools that are mostly located in the city. Then why do they have the centres in such remote places?” questioned Priya, who travelled to Avadi from Mylapore.