The web world today is abuzz with start-ups catering to Indian students. From campus news to homework help, there are portals of every kind to make life easy for the earnest scholar. On their part, students are discovering the many perks of online education, including opportunities to learn new languages, compare notes with peers across the globe, prepare for exams, get expert advice and enhance one’s knowledge quotient — all with the “anytime, anywhere” advantage.

This week, we feature yet another such web mine that promises to help school students in their quest for higher education. Visit http://entrancecorner.com if you are seeking assistance on making an informed career choice and working towards achieving it.

Entrance Corner is based on four pillars — information, resources, counselling and collaboration. It gives you access to entrance exam details, resources to prepare for them, mentorship to better understand your career choices, and avenues to connect with other students and teachers. The site offers these features in five broad disciplines — engineering, medical, law, commerce and open education.

The broad spectrum of areas covered means there is something for everyone. The site targets students in high school who are ready to take the plunge. There are several useful links and pages for those aspiring for admission to law, engineering, medical, commerce and distance learning institutes.

Each subject has a dedicated page with several sub sections. The latter include course details, exam information, discussion forums, resources, and a section called “my corner”, which has a profile page, friends list, groups you have joined, videos and photos.

The information on each page gives an overview of the discipline. For instance, the section on engineering has a complete schedule of entrance exams to be held in 2011 in various colleges in India. It also has a section on different engineering courses and career prospects in each. A quick view of the admission and counselling schedule for engineering this year will give you an idea about the eligibility and merit requirements of various engineering institutes. Students also get an alphabetical listing of college profiles and coaching institutes with student reviews. There’s more: a preparation calculator to assess your preparation for the exams, scholarship alerts and a discussion forum to exchange notes and queries.

The other disciplines have similar features. So, if engineering has information on the All India Engineering Entrance Examination and Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam, the medical section has similar resources on the All India Pre-Medical Test, and the law corner on the Common Law Admission Test. The section on commerce deals with chartered accountancy and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India exam, while the one on open learning covers all distance education courses and universities.

At Entrance Corner, students can also practise, analyse and improve their performance by taking the free online tests, following which you get an all-India rank and a complete graphical analysis of your performance.

The database of articles on Entrance Corner, too, is worth a read. You may choose from motivational articles, step-by-step exam guides, interviews with successful candidates and so on.

Overall, Entrance Corner is an interesting educational platform. One can get a basic understanding of the various entrance exams, and related courses and careers. The site is most useful in dealing with career confusion faced by students in classes XI and XII, when the youngsters can’t decide which specialisation to take up or which college to aim for. Entrance Corner also boasts of a large database of college profiles. The site is easy to navigate with a homepage that is in simple blue and white, which gives it a neat, streamlined look. It is free to access and once you log in, you get a profile page where you can view the tests available, attempted tests and practice tests.

However, a closer at the portal reveals that the section on engineering enjoys a lot more emphasis, with more features than in the others. So, there is a lack of uniformity of information. Also, the site needs to add more tests and improvise its content to attract more students. The section on puzzles and quizzes is not developed; it throws up blank pages.

FAST FACTS

WHAT IT IS

A portal on entrance exams in India

Membership fees

All features are free

Address

http://entrancecorner.com

Downside

Lack of uniformity of information across sections, some pages are blank