Ranchi, May 2: DAV Public School Bariatu student Adhiraj now believes that a paper leak can be a blessing.
He is among those examinees who skipped the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) yesterday morning after the news of the paper leak at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on saturday night spread, delaying the exam by hours, and instead appeared for the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) entrance test in the afternoon. Now, he will appear in the rescheduled AIEEE exam, which has been postponed to May 8
This year, 20,000 from the capital, including 65,000 from Jharkhand, were among the 11 lakh students from across India who appeared in the AIEEE, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission in engineering colleges.
The paper leak and the resultant chaos caused many to develop cold feet yesterday across 28 exam centres in the capital. G&H High School student Sukant Shandilya said he could not appear in the AIEEE due to confusion over timing.
But examinees like Adhiraj are getting an unexpected windfall of a second chance.
Yesterday, the leak led to CBSE distributing an alternate set of physics-chemistry-mathematics paper. The exam, scheduled between 9.30am and 12.30pm, began instead at 12 noon and continued till 3pm. The two-and-a-half hour delay caused many examinees to opt for AFMC entrance.
Hence, around 1,000 students who will appear in the AIEEE on May 8 are those who had skipped the paper yesterday.
A CBSE official from the Patna regional office said AIEEE examination would be held on May 8, as per the rescheduled timing. “It is expected that around 32,400 across India who skipped the exam will now take it on May 8,” he said.
Though the rescheduled date gives students a second chance, it is not without its flip side.
“I went for the AFMC entrance at Delhi Public School examination centre. I will appear for AIEEE on May 8 now, as I will get ample time for revision,” Adhiraj said. But he was quick to add: “The set of questions will be entirely different now. So I have to revise entire syllabus all over again.”
Delhi Public School principal J. Mohanty said around 1,500 examinees sat for the entrance examination from that particular centre.
“We heard about the incident of the leaked paper. But CBSE had made alternative arrangements and so we distributed the new set of question papers,” Mohanty said.
He also confirmed that he had received notification from the CBSE that for the re-examination, fresh questions would be supplied and centres would be changed. AIEEE is held in two parts — the first paper for engineering aspirants, the second for students wanting to pursue architecture.
