A common entrance test for all engineering colleges in India has been one of the most ambitious plans close to the heart of the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. He seems to have put his entire weight behind the plan even as IITs resented it.

Finally, with the compromise JEE formula accepted by all IITs, IIT Kanpur has also decided to reconsider its decision of conducting its own exam. Sibal could not make it to the IIT Council meet, which was to be held on June 27. Final decision is expected to be taken at the meeting of IIT Councils and NIT Councils to be held earlier next month. Check out the New JEE 2013 formula

Timeline JEE: ball by ball on CET

Last year, HRD minister Kapil Sibal put forth the proposal for a pan-India common engineering entrance exam. The plans to scrap IIT JEE and the idea to include class XII marks for drawing a single merit list for admission to all engineering institutions including IITs, did not go down well with IIT faculty, its students and alumni.

Meanwhile, Narayana Murthy made a tough statement that the quality of students being recruited by IITs is declining. He blamed the coaching institutes for this degradation and recommended that the whole selection criteria for engineering entrance should be revamped.

It was decided that an aptitude test will be introduced in the new JEE. The T.Ramaswami Committee working on 'Alternative system for admission into engineering colleges' recommended that class XII board scores should be normalized and given weightage to encourage students to pay more attention to their school studies. Read more

Here’s timeline view of how the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) turned from an idea to controversy to compromise:

• 22nd February, 2012 - By this time, students and experts had already started mourning the end of era for the glorious IIT JEE. IIT faculty and alumni praised the excellence of the exam and ranked it among the toughest three examinations in the world. Read more
• 15th March, 2012 - IITians expressed their apprehensions about the new exam. Sibal announced that the marks in Class XII board examinations will be given 40 per cent weightage. It was also announced that the exam will be conducted in two parts - Mains and Advanced. The Mains exam was said to be the aptitude test. IIT alumni protested the move and wanted IITs to stick to the former IIT JEE pattern that was time-tested and reliable. Read more 
• 28th March, 2012 - IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay expressed displeasure over the changes proposed by the HRD Ministry. The All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIFF) wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and Kapil Sibal complaining that IIT senates have been ignored in the process. Read more
• 29th March, 2012 - IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi senates as well as IIT Madras Faculty Association asserted their rights to put forward views and recommendations for the new exam. They also said that the HRD Minsitry is rushing to implement the new exam in 2013. Read more
• 6th April, 2012 - In the middle of this chaos, the Delhi High Court gave an important decision. It stated that no student will be allowed to appear for IIT again, if he or she is selected and then withdraws after confirming admission. It said that wasting a precious IIT seat is not only unfair to other students but also puts financial strain on the institute. Read more
• 10th April, 2012 - IIT Bombay faculty suggested that Class XII marks could be used to shortlist candidates at the first stage but the merit list should only be based on the performance of a student in the advanced test. It also said that taking Class XII marks into account will necessitate several education reforms such as having a uniform curriculum across India, getting rid of exam malpractices, and improving quality of school education and teachers. Read more
• 11th April, 2012 - MHRD announces that the new JEE will be conducted twice a year - in April and in November or December. It also claimed that it will announce the dates of new JEE by April 16. It also decided to set up a JEE Apex Board (JAB) to conduct the exams smoothly. IIT faculty was still opposing the move. Read more
• 14th May, 2012 - MHRD named the new test as the Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET) and set May 28 as the deadline to give a final decision on it. IITs pointed out that single-door entry will increase stress levels of the students as they will have no other option. Besides, weightage to board examinations is unfair as India has about 40 education boards that follow different curricula and different grading systems. Since, students will need to do better, both at school and the entrance test, they will rely on coaching institutes even more. Read more
• 25th May, 2012 - IIT senates were stuck on IIT JEE or at least postponing the new JEE till 2014, so that they could have more time to study it and then implement it in a better manner. IIT Guwahati remained the only IIT to endorse the government's proposal whole-heartedly. The government promised to clear doubts by May 28. Read more
• 29th May, 2012 - HRD won over IIT Council and NIT Council to conduct the new JEE exam. It was decided that different ranking systems will be used for IITs and other CFTIs. But the counseling and allotment of seats for all the engineering institutes will take place jointly. The adoption of the new exams by the states remained the only hurdle, which was expected to clear in a high-level meeting on June 5-6. However, IIT faculty was not happy with the decision and filed a note of dissent against it. Read more
• 1st June, 2012 - IIT alumni and students supported opposition of new JEE by the IIT Faculty Federation. The President of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association - Somnath Bharti - also threatened to take a legal action, if need be. IIT Hyderabad came forward to welcome the new common entrance test. Read more
• 4th June, 2012 - IIT Kanpur students and faculty members came forward as leaders of the opposition. They said that the nod of IIT Council was a 'breach of trust' and that the advice of their senate has been royally ignored in the process. They also prophesized that the new test would be a 'national disaster' as it was not well planned and accused that the HRD Ministry is pushing the new JEE to hog the limelight for reforms credit. Read more
• 6th June, 2012 - In the high-level meeting with the state education ministers, HRD Ministry's new exam was willingly accepted by Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Assam and Maharashtra. Kerala and Uttar Pradesh opposed the new test while the other states were not happy with the fact that different yardsticks were being used for admission to IITs and other CFTIs. The states who will adopt the new exam will have the freedom to assign weightage to Class XII board exams, JEE Mains, and JEE Advanced Exam as they deem fit. They will get the examination papers in English, Hindi and their regional language too. IIT Alumni Association alleges that Sibal has broken his promise of not going ahead with the new exam next year, if there is any dissent from IITs. Read more
• 8th June, 2012 - Despite the government's repeated claims that the new JEE will curb the coaching culture, academic experts voice concerns that the business of coaching institutes will only see a surge as students will need more educational support now. Read more
• 11th June, 2012 – IIT Kanpur has put its foot down and has announced that it will conduct its own exam next year. There are rumours that IIT Delhi and Bombay may follow its footsteps. Read more
• 12th June, 2012 - The revolt of IIT Kanpur stirred the HRD Ministry to actively examine the legal rights and powers of IIT senates. The ministry stated that IIT Kanpur's exam decision will need clearance by its Board of Governors (BoG) under section 13 of the IIT Act. It also stated that section 15 of the IIT Act does empower IIT Senates to maintain the instruction, education, and examination standards of the institute but setting admission standards is the exclusive domain of the IIT Council. Read more
• 13th June, 2012 - 
  • IIT alumni and faculty welcomed Kapil Sibal's statement that the government has no intention to impinge on the autonomy of IITs. However, since the decision of new admission process has not been rolled back, it is still suspicious. Sibal has offered to meet the IITs protesting the new JEE in an effort to convince them about its sanctity. IIT Guwahati Director Gautam Barua came under attack from faculty federation for criticizing the decision of IIT Kanpur to hold its own exam. Read more 
  • IIT Patna students say that the new exam proposed to replace IIT JEE, AIEEE, and state-level CETs is being implemented too soon. Normally, engineering aspirants prepare for the exam at least  two years in advance. This year has been too confusing for students and they have not had  enough time to prepare for the new exam. Hence, the new JEE should only be implemented in 2014  or 2015. See details
• 14th June, 2012 - IIT Kanpur has formed a nine-member admission committee that decided to stick to the present IIT JEE format and eligibility requirements for its own exam next year. IIT-K director will soon approach directors of other IITs to join the move. Meanwhile, Kapil Sibal is busy urging states and 130 deemed universities to join the new common entrance exam club. Deemed universities will meet the HRD Minister on June 25 to discuss the issue while states have to inform the ministry about whether and when they will join the new JEE by June 30, 2012. Read more
• 15th June, 2012 - The All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) will meet the PM today seeking intervention on the CET row with the HRD Ministry. It will also suggest introduction of one education board across India to allow students to have a common platform on which they can be evaluated. It seeks to ask the PM to let IITs decide whether they want to accept the new exam or not, and give them freedom to conduct their own tests. They will also ask to postpone the new CET until after 2014, so that students can acclimatize to it. For the Advance test, they will suggest that a subjective-test should be introduced. Read more
• 19th June, 2012 - Since the PM assured the IIT faculty members that the automony of the IITs will reman 'intact', the HRD Ministry has decided to soften its stance. IITs may be allowed to conduct their own Advance Test, which will not be on the same day as the Main Test. Class XII marks may be left out of the ranking process too. Read more
• 21st June, 2012 - Kapil Sibal is stuck on introducing the new CET 2013 next year. He has come up with a new compromise formula to break the deadlock, where onlu top 20% of all Class XII boards will be allowed to sit for the Advance exam, the gateway entrance exam to the IITs. Read more
• 22nd June, 2012 – In its senate meeting, IIT Delhi has decided to follow the lead of IIT Kanpur and conduct its own entrance exam. IIT-D students and alumni association support the decision. NDTV reports that IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur may announce separate entrance exams too. Students are worried about uncertainties over engineering entrance exam next year. With each IIT holding a separate entrance exam, the pressure on the students would mount next year. Read more
• 25th June, 2012 – IIT faculty members seem to be pacified by the new compromise formula of using percentiles of respective boards to screen students for entrance exams to IITs. The formula will allow only top 20 percentile of candidates in their respective boards to appear for the Advance Exam of the new JEE. The IIT Council will meet on the issue on June 27. IIT faculty said that if IIT senates are allowed to take the final call, they might respond positively to the decision. Read more
• 26th June, 2012 – Most of the 130 deemed universities in India are ready to adopt the new JEE. However, HRD Ministry has asked them to respond formally to the proposal and voice any concerns that they may have, so that they can be resolved in subsequent meetings. Read more
• 2nd July, 2012  – In a rush to implement the new JEE, the government panel allegedly ignored the concerns expressed by experts of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Calcutta, cautioning the comparison of class XII exam scores across different Boards for admissions to the IITs and other engineering schools. All this while, the government and the IIT council maintained that the ISI experts had approved their plan to compare scores across different Boards. However, T Ramasami- the head of the government panel argues that the suggestions were not binding. Read more
• 4th July, 2012 - Despite two independed studies pointing to the difference in performance levels across education boards in India, the government has decided to go ahead with the percentile formula for the new JEE. Now, the students of CBSE, CISCE, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh boards who have been found to perform far better in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics will face tougher competition levels than students of other boards to make it to the Top 20 percentile category. Similarly, students of state boards with fewer takers will have an advantage over studens of other boards as they will have to face less competition. Read more
• 6th July, 2012 – Implementing JEE 2013 is proving to be a logistical nightmare. Authentic caste data of high school students are not easy to find at the board level. Hence, to release a percentile list on the basis of quota guidelines (which are still in the process of being prepared) will be difficult for them. Besides, all boards will need to publish their results by the second week of June, for which they may have to alter their exam schedules. The Top 20 percentile concept is not clear too. Read more
• 16th July, 2012 - Preliminary data of seven boards across India shows that the Class XII scores to get into the top 20 percentile vary widely from board to board. Only students in the top 20 percentile in their respective boards will be allowed to sit for JEE Advanced exams – the final step to IITs. Read more
• 23rd July, 2012 - The Council of Boards of School Education has compiled and released the top 20 percentile data for different state boards. Students will need to score accordingly to be eligible to appear in JEE Advanced exam next year. It is expected that the graph may go up next year as students will start focusing more on their board exam results. Read more
• 26th July, 2012 - The new JEE is in news again. IIT Bombay senate has proposed that the number of students allowed to take JEE Advanced exam should be restricted to 50,000, as planned originally. Read more
• 27th July, 2012 - In a poll conducted by the IIT-B Alumni Association (IITBAA), it has been found that 78% of the 1,800 respondents voted against the new two-tier Joint Entrance Exam (JEE). The respondents included faculty members, students and alumni of IIT Bombay. The respondents were questioned on whether the new exam was a threat to IIT-B’s autonomy, will it dilute the brand value of the exam, appropriateness of the process followed by the MHRD, and whether IIT Bombay should hold its own entrance test. The opinions did not change much even after the compromise. Read more
• 30th July, 2012 - IIT Kanpur had been the first one to oppose the new format of the Common Entrance Test (CET). However, it has decided to soften its approach for the sake of IIT aspirants to appear for the exam next year. To remove the uncertainties as soon as possible, it has decided to adopt the new Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) 2013 as an interim measure. It proposed the constitution of a senate committee to study all aspects of the admission process and come up with recommendations for the exam post 2013 onwards. Read more
• 6^th August, 2012 – Despite the recommendations of IIT Delhi and Kanpur to allow students with 60% marks in their boards to sit for JEE Advanced next year, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of IITs has decided to stick to the ‘Top 20 percentile in board exams’ as the eligibility criteria for the exam. It has also decided to screen 1,50,000 students to take the ‘Advanced’ exam next year. The pattern and syllabus of JEE Advanced would be the same as that of IIT JEE 2012. Read more
• 8th August, 2012 – JEE Advanced 2013 will be held on June 2 next year. The objective-type exam will be conducted in two shifts. Each paper will be of three-hour duration. Only five states have expressed their willingness to adopt the new nation-wide exam. These include Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. Gujarat has put forward the condition that the question papers should be available in the regional language too. None of these states have declared the weightage they will give to Class XII board marks and whether they will adopt the test from 2013 or not. Read more
• 14th August, 2012 - First state to announce its allegiance to the nation-wide Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to all its engineering colleges from 2013 onwards, Maharashtra govt has decided to give 50% weightage to class XII board exam marks for the exam. The weightage given to the board marks will be same for both English-medium and non-English medium schools. Read more
• 22nd August, 2012 - The Joint Advanced Board (JAB) has finally cleared the clouds of confusion hovering over Advanced Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) 2013 format. It has been announced that the Advanced JEE, scheduled to be conducted on June 2, 2013, will not be subjective and will retain IIT JEE 2012 format. Advanced JEE format may change in the future though. Read more
• 23rd August, 2012 - As a relief to students who are not in the Top 20 percentile of their respective boards this year, HRD offers them another chance to score better at Class XII board exams next year. Hence, these IIT aspirants can appear for JEE once again. The top 1.5 lakh students to be allowed to sit for Advanced JEE 2013 will include students from all categories - General, SC, ST and OBC. The reservation category matrices for JEE 2013 is still not clear though. Read more
• 10th September, 2012 - The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has officially announced that the All-india Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) will be replaced by JEE (Main) and IIT JEE will make way for JEE (Advanced) from next year. Offline JEE Main 2013 will be conducted on April 7, 2013 while the online test will be conducted later that month. Read more
• 18th September, 2012 - A new document highlighted that aspirants will now have three chances to qualify the newly-announced Joint Entrance Exam (Main) to be conducted in the year 2013. It also said that the three-hour exam will have objective type questions and multiple-choice questions. For every wrong answer one-fourth of a mark will be deducted, but there will be no negative marking for not attempting.