An entrance examination is an examination that educational institutions conduct to select prospective students for admission. An entrance exam is a gateway for aspirants of various professional course. It is conducted by educational institutes to select eligible and deserving candidates for admission. It may be held at any stage of education, from primary education to tertiary education, even though it is typically held at tertiary or post-secondary education stage in India.
At present, innumerable entrance exams are conducted to fill seats of Engineering, Medical, Management, Law, Journalism other professional courses at various educational institutions at national and international level. In India also the entrance exams are held at national, state, and university level and the scope of these exams varies from course to course and college to college. In India, entrance examinations are chiefly confined to medicine, engineering, and management. Check here the details and list of all important entrance exams held every year in India for these professional course.
List of Entrance Exams in India
- Education Entrance Examinations
- Engineering Entrance Examinations
- Medical Entrance Examinations
- Agricultural Entrance Exams
- Architecture Entrance Exam
- Arts and Humanities Entrance Examinations
- Aviation – IGRUA
- AYUSH Entrance Examinations (Ayurveda, Unani, Homoeopathy)
- Commerce Entrance Examinations
- Common Entrance Examinations
- Fashion and Design Entrance Examinations
- Hotel Management Entrance Examinations
- Law Entrance Examinations
- Management Entrance Examinations
- Media and Journalism Entrance Examinations
- Nursing Entrance Examinations
- Pharmacy Entrance Examinations
- Science Entrance Examinations
- Diploma & Polytechnic
- Lateral Entry
The trend of entrance exam in India was started by the University of Calcutta, in 1857. The University conducted the exam to determine the eligibility of the candidates for admission and only 1 in 4 students passed the exam.
Type of Entrance Exams in India
Entrance exams can be divided into 3 broad categories. They are:
- National Level Entrance Exams
- State Level Entrance Exams
- University / Institute Level Entrance Exam
National Level or All India Level Entrance Exams
National level Entrance Exams are conducted throughout the nation and candidates from all states of India can apply for it. The score of the exam is recognized by colleges / universities / institute throughout the nation. Important Entrance-exams with the name of the conducting bodies are listed below:
| Exam Name | Conducting Body |
| NEET | NTA |
| JEE Main / JEE Advance | NTA |
| CAT | IIMs |
| CLAT | NLUs |
| GATE | IITs |
National Testing Agency (NTA) – The Govt. of India set up NTA in the year 2017. The purpose of the Agency is to have a body which is completely dedicated to conducting entrance exams in the nation. Since its inception, NTA has taken over various exams and is expected to hold more exams in future.
State Level Entrance Exams
These are those exams, which are held throughout the state and qualifying candidates only gets admission in the colleges / universities / institutes which are in that state. Usually, for these examination, only domicile of that state can apply. However, eligibility criteria differs for each exam. Some of such exams with the name of the state are as follows:
| Exam Name | State |
|---|---|
| KCET | Karnataka |
| WBJEE | West Bengal |
| UPSEE | Uttar Pradesh |
| MHT CET | Maharashtra |
| Rajasthan JET | Rajasthan |
| COMEDK | Karnataka |
University Level Entrance Exam
These exams are also held at all India level. However, the difference is that the score of these exams is usually considered by only one or few colleges / universities / institute for admission. Some of such exams with the name of the conducting body are as follows:
| Exam Name | College / University / Institute |
| VITEEE | Vellore Institute if Technology |
| BITSAT | BITS Pilani |
| MIT | Manipal University |
| CUSAT | Cochin University of Science and Technology |
| XAT | Xavier School of Management (XLRI) |
| LPU NEST | Lovely Professional University |
| SRMJEEE UG | SRM University |
Mode of Entrance Exam in India
Earlier, the entrance exams were held on pen and paper but as the technology advanced, the mode of examination changed. Few of the following popular modes in which the exams are held are as follows:
Offline Mode – This is the traditional pen and paper format, in which candidates have to write answer on a paper or OMR sheet.
CBT Mode – Compute based test mode is the most popular mode of entrance exams right now. Here, the candidates have to attempt the exam on a computer and mark answers with the help of a mouse. In some of the exams, candidates even get virtual calculate as well.
Online Mode – Even in online mode the candidates take the exam via computer. However, the only difference is that candidates can take the exam form anywhere and are not restricted to go to a particular center. To take these types of exam, candidates just need to have a computer, good internet connection, and a webcam.
Scope of Entrance Exams in India
Due to entrance exams, standards of selection has become possible. Earlier, the selection of candidates way done via various methods. However, now all the candidates are evaluated on the basis of a standardized exam.
Each exam is prepared by a team of expert, who evaluate n number of factors for determining the exam. From release of the notice to determining the centers and making the question to release of the result is carried out by a team of experts.
The purpose of conducting an entrance exam is to judge the candidate’s knowledge, aptitude, mind sharpness, presence of mind and so on. Each entrance test whether state level or national level follow a set of exam pattern to conduct the exam.
Advantages of Entrance Exams
As explained above, entrance exam has standardized the evaluation process. However, other than this, there are following advantages of the exams.
- India has a population of 1.37 billion and there are thousands or lakhs of students applying for each course. It becomes heavily difficult to make a selection of the capable candidates from the crowd. Hence, entrance exams serves as a single platform to evaluate the performance of numerous of candidates.
- Through entrance exam all the candidates get an equal opportunity.
- Candidate’s aptitude can be checked through entrance exams and hence the right candidate can be selected.
- To qualify an entrance exam, candidate needs the right set of attitude, hardworking skills and emotional intelligence. Therefore, entrance exams helps in selecting the candidate who is a performer in all these skills along with matching aptitude standards
- Increases the morale of the shortlisted candidates.
- Entrance exams provides transparency in the selection procedure.
What After Entrance Exams?
After the entrance exam, the candidates are called for counselling or personal interview round. In some cases, qualified candidates are called for direct admission. It depends on the conducting institutes and universities, how they want to evaluate the candidates.
List of top 5 engineering entrance exams for class 12th pass
| 1 | JEE Main and JEE Advance. Read more.. |
| 2 | VITEE – Vellore Institute of Technology Engineering Entrance Exam. Read more.. |
| 3 | BITSAT: BITS Pilani. Read more.. |
| 4 | MIT: Manipal University offers admission in B.Tech course via Manipal Entrance Test. Read more.. |
| 5 | SRMJEEE UG: SRM University holds SRM Joint Entrance Examination Engineering. Read more.. |
Hope this article is helpful. If you have any queries or doubts, leave a comment below!
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