High scores to push up engineering cut-off in Chennai – Times of India

CHENNAI: The cut-off for engineering admissions is likely to increase by 5 marks to 25 marks in various bands this year, with the number of students getting above 90% in Class XII science stream increasing by 15 times, say experts.
Last year, 1,867 science stream students scored above 551 marks. This year, it increased to 30,600 due to the weightage system. In the commerce stream, there were 8,909 students in the 551-600 range against 4,437 last year. The number of vocational stream students in the 551-600 mark range also more than doubled from 50 to 136.

“The variation in cut-off will vary for different slabs. For 190 and above, the cut-off may increase by 5-7 marks while it would increase by around 15 marks for those with 180 marks and above as there will be a lot of students in the 170-185 cut-off range this year,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi.
In the 150 marks and above range, the cut-off may increase by up to 25 marks as very few scored below 400. “A student with 190 marks may get a rank above 9,000 compared to 3,445 last year and students with 180 cut-off may get rank above 22,000 compared to 9,190 last year,” he added.
The competition for B Com seats will also be tougher. “The number of commerce students scoring above 550 marks has doubled compared to the last year. More students will want BCom seats in top colleges,” Gandhi said.
The relief among students was palpable. Ashwin Siddharth V from Chennai, who scored 591 out of 600 marks said he was happy with his score.
V Shanthi, headmistress of Vidyodaya Girls Higher Secondary School in T Nagar said 102 of 112 students scored above 500 marks, with 75 getting above 550. “Last year, we had many centums. This year, nobody got full marks.”
M Sathish Kumar, principal of Vana Vani Matriculation Higher Secondary’ School on UT-M campus, where 96 of the 146 students scored above 80% marks, said there was general satisfaction as the scores were more compared to Class XI.
N Vijayan, senior principal of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tambaram, said though the average performance had improved, the top rankers were disappointed as they could not get more marks due to the weightage system followed. “This year it will be tough competition as children in government and government-aided schools performed equally well”
R C Saraswathi, headmistress of Government Girls Higher Secondary School at Ashok Nagar, said that of the 600 students, 150 scored above 500.
B Purushothaman, senior principal of Chennai based Everwin Group of Schools, said a majority of students felt the marks were not less. “Students will hesitate to write the optional exam as the government announced that marks in that exam will be final.”