HYDERABAD:With multiple entrance exams set to begin soon, students in the state are going

through a stressful phase. Parents too are feeling the pressure of filling numerous forms and

travelling across the country with their kids for the exams.
Over a dozen entrance exams are lined up for 10+2 students in the state in a span of 30 days in

May. The exams are for admission to engineering and medical courses. These are apart from

IIT-JEE and AIEEE, which were conducted in April.

The multiple exams are causing lakhs of students a great deal of stress and anxiety. Parents are

feeling the financial pressure of shelling out thousands of rupees in exam fees, travelling

expenses and coaching class fees. As many as 50,000 students from the state appeared for IIT-JEE

and another 1.4 lakh students appeared for AIEEE for admission into engineering courses in

prestigious IITs, NITs, IIITs and reputed deemed universities.

More than 3.4 lakh students have applied for the Eamcet engineering exam and 50,000 for the

Eamcet medical entrance exam to be held on May 30.

If students want to pursue higher education in other states they have to appear for entrance

tests held in those states as well.

For instance, thousands of 10+2 students in the state appear for medical entrance exams every

year being conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS-New Delhi), Armed

Forces Medical College, Pune, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Jawaharlal Nehru Post

Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), CMC-Vellore, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of

Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Consortium of Med ical, Engineering and Dental colleges of Karnataka

(COMED), Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai etc. Similarly, lakhs of students appear for

multiple entrance exams for admissions into engineering colleges like IIT-JEE, AIEEE,

BITS-Pilani, Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, SRM University, Tamil Nadu, Manipal

Insti tute of Technology, Mani pal, Mata Amritanan damayi Engineering College, Coimbatore etc.

"All these entrance exams are meant for 10+2 students for admissions into medical and

engineering courses alone.
Moreover, all these are objective-type exams with questions on maths, physics, chemistry and

biology. If this is the case, why should a student be subjected to so many entrance tests just

to gain admissions into the same courses," asked Mr Kondal Rao, a senior lecturer at Narayana

Educational Institutions.

Ms K. Niharika, a 10+2 student, paints a horrifying picture of what a student has to go through.

"We have to constantly look out for notifications to be released for entrance exams since

December. For four months till April, we will be busy buying applications and submitting them to

the respective institutions by post. In between, we have to appear for Board exams in March. As

soon as the Board exams are finished, the entrance exams began with IIT-JEE in the second week

of April and AIIIE on April 25. I have to write another 10 entrance exams in May and travel to

other states to appear for exams," she said.

Each exam costs a hefty sum of money. There's also the fees of the coaching class without which

it seems no student can do well.

"I spent nearly Rs 75,000 on coaching classes for my son. While the institutions charged Rs

40,000 for IITJEE training, the fee was Rs 35,000 for Eamcet. He applied for a dozen entrance

exams. On an average, each application form cost Rs 1,000 and I had to spend Rs 12,000 to buy

applications alone," said Mr Harinarayana, a parent. "My daughter was allotted exam centres in

Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, New Delhi and Vellore. The exams are scheduled at 9 am. Due to

this, we are forced to travel to these cities a day in advance and our hotel expenses are

soaring," said Mr K. Vijaya Bhasakar, another parent.