The Preamble
JEE and Class XII Board Scores : The Story of
Normalization
After the Councils of the Indian Institutes of
Technology and the National Institutes of Technology decided to alter the
system of engineering admissions, there was a long-drawn process involving
various experts and decision makers at various academic and administrative
levels trying to develop a new admission procedure based on an appropriate
combination of entrance examination scores and normalized class XII scores of
the students. At one point during this process, the Indian Statistical
Institute (ISI) was asked to provide statistical inputs and help in developing
a suitable normalization formula for class XII board scores that can be
combined with the entrance examination scores for the purpose of selection.
Here, the sequence of events leading to the currently
adopted admission procedures, along with the role of ISI in these matters, is
described with full reference to background documents. While experts from ISI
provided their official inputs at various stages of the deliberations, the
ultimate decisions were taken without involving ISI, and those decisions were
not in conformity with ISI recommendations.
At the end of this description, the formula that is
currently being used for admission to NITs is explained with some
illustration.