I narrated my experience of becoming an Engineer earlier. The process was really haphazard and with little thoughts. As they say in the stock market parlance, following Herd Mentality. Because everybody else is doing it, you do it. Some of you might be thinking, well, that was 25 years back. Things have changed now. Sorry guys. Unfortunately, things really have not changed much. A lot of information is available. In fact, we are overloaded with information. Options have increased. And this has made decision making even tougher. Do you really expect a child of 15 years old to decipher all the information and decide whether s/he wants to become an engineer or not? Yes, today's kids are much smarter than we were. They are much more informed. They have access to Internet where they can have whatever information they want. But they need an independent perspective which as a parent we need to provide.
Not an easy task. We can not very easily have an independent or objective view of our kids. We are too much emotionally attached to them. We want them to be what we are or what we wanted to be but could not. A Civil Engineer father who has his own construction business wants his son to be an Civil Engineer to take over his business eventually or a bank clerk wants his son to be an Mechanical Engineer since he could not become Engineer because of lack of finances during his time!!!!!!!!!! But we have moral responsibility to let our child grow in the area where s/he has strength or interest. So how do we know whether our child has that thing to become an Engineer.
To start with, as a parent, lets start thinking about the career of our kids early. Lets start observing them really closely from 5th standard in general and 8th standard in particular. My son was fascinated about Lego building blocks and transformers when he was young. He would play for hours with them. He would build them and break them into parts and start all over again and build something new. Well, this could be a sign of budding Engineer!!! Or take example of today morning. My wife cribbed to Kamala (our cook) that she had completely burnt karela and bhendi sabji. My son asked my wife do you know what exactly happened? Bhendi and karela are organic matters made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. When Kamala burnt the vegetables, hydrogen and oxygen together forming water evaporated leaving black carbon behind !!!!! Vow, is there a chemical engineer in making??? If you find these signs, keep encouraging this behaviour.
There are some aptitude tests being conducted. No harm in having your child take these tests and get the results. But please do not take them on a face value. These are just one of the inputs!!!! Sadly though, beyond this, there is no other help as such available to assess what the child is suitable for. Realising this, Sanjiv, Kannan and myself are launching an career intelligence initiative for school children of 8th, 9th and 10th standard. We will start with 8th standard and work with them for three years. We will work with them in a classroom set-up as well as through website. We have set-up Maverick Achievers Foundation for this initiative. I will keep you posted on the developments. And might ask for some donations as well!!!!!!!
Sorry for the diversion. Once your child reaches 10th, start preparing. If she has firmly made up her mind not to take up biology as subject, identify colleges which offer vocational subjects which will save your child from studying extra language and biology. Check out the colleges which offer vocational courses. You can consider vocational courses like Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, or Engineering Drawing, Economics for your child. However, rest assure that getting into vocational courses is not going to be easy. We are talking about cut-offs of 93%+ in reputed colleges like Ruparel, Sathye, Ruia in Mumbai. Let me share my own experience. Even though I was rank-holder and had secured 291/300 in Maths and Science in 10th, I still did not get admission in Ruparel for vocational electronics. The admission closed at 292/300!!!!! I, instead, had to join Parle college!!!! So, if you think that your child is not ready for such high percentages, start looking for less reputed colleges right now.
Oh, I forgot something. In addition to state boards (Higher Secondary Certificate), there are ISC (Indian School Certificate), CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum also for 11th and 12th where vocational courses are available. Syllabus standard for ISC and CBSE is comparatively higher. You can consider IB curriculum if you are thinking about sending your child abroad after 12th for undergraduate studies. You can opt for curriculum like ISC, CBSE, ISC if your child has been part of these curriculum till 10th. Otherwise, for SSC (Secondary School Certificate) state board kids, it gets a bit difficult. Bear also in mind the tuition fees in ISC, CBSE and IB curriculum are quite high.
Well, in addition to colleges, start looking for tuition classes. Typically tuition classes prepare for HSC / ISC / CBSE 11th and 12th as well as Common Entrance Tests (CETs). Some tuition classes which specialize in the preparation for IIT-JEE exam have tied up with colleges. The advantage is that the child attends the tuition classes in the college itself. Again it is quite strenuous affair and expensive as well. Discuss with your child whether s/he is willing to put in these kind of efforts. A lot of students are going to Kota in Rajasthan for attending IIT-JEE classes. I heard there are classes who prepare for clearing entrance exams of reputed IIT-JEE classes like Bansal in Kota!!! Even in Pune, some residential classes have come up. Think carefully before jumping in to it. Drop out / Burn out rates are quite high. Understand the capabilities as well as limitations of your child. Do not make her go through something because it is a latest fad / trend!!!!! Sell (not insist) to your child that s/he has to study regularly atleast 3/4 hours a day right from day 1 of 11th. Secondly, 11th is no longer a fun or rest year. Preparation for career after 12th starts from 11th itself. Realise that number of entrance exams have 11th and 12th syllabus for exam - not just 12th. So your child can not just study for 11th forget the portion after exam and concentrate on 12th!!!!!!
Sorry, missed one important decision after 10th. If you and your child have decided that she would not pursue 11th and 12th; instead would opt for Engineering diploma, start checking out colleges offering diploma courses.
After 12th examination, the child has to go through number of entrance examinations. Realise the criticality of entrance exams. Even if your child scores outstanding percentage in PCM or aggregate in 12th examination and unfortunately does not score in entrance examinations, he is not going to get admission into reputed engineering college!!!!!!!! There are number of entrance examinations, we will discuss about few of them.
IIT - JEE
Indian Institute of Technology - Joint Entrance Examination. Clearing of this entrance examination enables your child to get into 6 main IITs, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwhati, and Roorkee and other 9 IITs set up after 2007. In addition, same scores are considered by colleges like IT-BHU (Institute of Technology - Banaras Hindu University), ISM ( Indian School of Mining - Dhanbad), IISST (Indian Institute of Space and Science Technology), IISER (Indian Institute of Scientific Education and Research, Pune and Kolkata). If your child has a passion for engineering, take him / her to one of campuses of IITs in your area and normal engineering college in your area. You will not have to sell him that he needs to work towards getting into IIT!!!!!!!!! Preparation for IIT - JEE is not memory based. It is application based. It does not whether you know Newton's third law of motion by heart or not. If you have not understood the principle and if you can not apply the law to real life situation, you will not be able to even attempt an IIT - JEE question!!!!! Remember one thing. You are not preparing for IIT-JEE. You are preparing Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Once your fundamentals are clear, you can attempt question from any entrance examination. But remember, IIT-JEE is mother of all entrance exams. Give it a try 100%. After that you do not get into IIT, that is different question. Atleast you will not repent later on in your life why I did not give my 100% for IIT-JEE preparation. My life would have been different. Honestly telling you, I have these regrets!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you score 30%, you will get entry into one of IITs. If you score 60%, you are assured of very good branch in very good IIT. 2nd Sunday of April. Paper I - 3hours. Paper II - 3 hours. PCM both papers. 11th and 12th syllabus.
AIEEE
All India Engineering Entrance Examination. Based on this exam score, you can get admissions into NITs (National Institute of Technologies- earlier these used to be called RECs Regional Engineering Colleges). There are in all 20 NITs one being in Nagpur. It is ranked 4th behind Trichi, Suratkal, Varangal. IIITs (Indian Institute of Information Technology - Allahabad, Hyderabad and Gwalior) also consider AIEEE scores. In addition, DCE (Delhi College of Engineering), BITS Mesra in Ranchi are other reputed colleges which consider AIEEE score. Another important thing is 15% of seats in local engineering colleges are filled based on AIEEE score. So 15% of seats in VJTI, COEP will be filled based on AIEEE score. So appearing for this entrance is must!!!!!!!! MCQ. Negative marking. Right answer +3, Wrong answer -1. 3 hours combined PCM. 11th and 12th CBSE syllabus. Last Sunday of April.
BITSAT
Birla Institute of Technology Admission Test is entrance for BITS Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad. For BITS - Dubai, you do not need to score in the exam; your parents need to have requisite money to pay!!!!!!!!!!! BITSAT is Computer Based Test and can be taken between 1st May to 10th June. The results are declared immediately. MCQ. PCM + English + Logical Reasoning. 3 hours. Negative marking. Right answer +3, Wrong answer -1. 11th and 12th syllabus.
MHT - CET
Maharashtra Health and Technology - Common Entrance Test. 85% of seats in local engineering colleges are filled based on the scores in this examination. Easiest examination. MCQ. 12th standard HSC syllabus. No negative marking. Conducted in 2nd week of May. 90 minutes Physics and Chemistry and 90 minutes Maths.
Now that prerequisites are cleared, where to find information about various courses? Well, check out these two websites for detailed information.
Director of Technical education
VJTI Virmata Jijabai Technological Institute
So all the best guys. Enjoy engineering!!!!!
Milind Kulkarni
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