As per officials, the broader objective is to examine whether an aptitude test can reduce the influence of coaching on a student’s performance (Representative/AI Image)Experts from IIT Kanpur and JEE Apex Board (JAB) members will meet on Monday to discuss proposed reforms to the JEE Advanced examination, including how to make the test more student-friendly and the impact of an aptitude test in the entrance, said an official.According to a senior IIT official, an aptitude test for the first-year students across 10-12 IITs has already been conducted to collect data and assess whether a similar test can eventually be incorporated in the entrance examination.In the last council meeting with the IITs held in August last year, IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal had flagged concerns over the existing structure of the JEE Advanced, the prevalence of a huge coaching industry, and the significant emotional and financial stress on families. To address these challenges, he proposed shifting to adaptive testing of quantitative and reasoning skills, which dynamically generates questions based on a student’s performance.An expert committee has also been constituted to evaluate the adaptive testing proposal and its potential to reduce coaching dependency and exam vulnerabilities.When asked about the status of the proposal, Agrawal said the aptitude-test proposal is still at an “exploring” stage and no decision has been taken on introducing it in JEE Advanced.“We are exploring an improved aptitude test …this is not decided yet…It will take at least two to three years…,” Agrawal said.As per officials, the broader objective is to examine whether an aptitude test can reduce the influence of coaching on a student’s performance. Agrawal also said that studies have been done in the US to understand the impact of coaching on performance in aptitude tests.Story continues below this ad“They found that after some 20-30 hours of coaching material, going beyond doesn’t substantially improve performance. Based on that, they have switched many of their exams to aptitude tests. The SAT is an aptitude test,” Agrawal said.“So, we are going to use this information. We want to convince ourselves that in the Indian context this could be the case, because if we can establish that the aptitude test has a strong correlation with intelligence, that would imply that coaching will not impact much,” the official added.“A coaching institute cannot increase the innate intelligence of a student. The ability to do well in an aptitude test is more about practising different types of questions,” Agrawal said.The proposed changes are also linked to the IITs’ broader discussions on making JEE Advanced more student-friendly. However, the official clarified that any major change in the examination structure would not be implemented overnight. “It will take at least one or two years to implement the roadmap. Whenever we want to bring about a major change, it takes time. These students need time to prepare for the examination,” the official said.