No negative marking in Odisha joint entrance examination

There will be no negative marking in Odisha joint entrance examination (OJEE) this year, government authorities said. The test for admission into various undergraduate and post graduate courses in the state is scheduled on May 12.

"The government decided to do away with negative marks as students getting less than zero also got admission, the previous year. A large number of seats are still vacant," secretary technical education and training Chandra Sekhar Kumar said here on Monday. Four wrong answers fetched one negative mark in the OJEE.

Official sources said the questions will be evaluated under a percentile system. However, those leaving their OMR (optical mark recognition) answer-sheets blank will stand disqualified. Besides, the government has decided to make the application filling up process completely online.

In another related development, the government has decided to offer integrated and dual degree in engineering and management courses from the coming academic session. Students can directly take admission in courses such and BTech and MBA or BTech and MTech.

The scrutiny committee of employment and technical education department has recently decided that Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) will inspect infrastructure of colleges interested in offering dual degrees. The varsity can allow allowing such colleges to run such dual degree courses after the colleges obtain no objection certificates from the government. BPUT will develop syllabi for the integrated courses and students would be drawn through the OJEE.

OJEE Exam Date : May 12, 2013