Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions - TNEA and what is random no. generation !

In 2016, there has been a slight improvement in the pass percentage in the 12^th higher secondary examinations, with a statewide percentage of 91.4, as against 90.6 percent registered in the previous two years.  This year, students from less-known towns and villages had done well, putting those from cities and big towns in the shade. With a total of 1195, two students, Aarthi and Jaswanth, from Vidya Mandir school in Oothangarai, Krishnagiri district, secured the State first rank. In the examinations held in March 2016,  8.3 lakh students appeared across the State, the pass percentage of girls was 94.4 and that of boys, 87.9.  The no. of centums in Physics fell drastically from 124 the previous year to five. Similarly, in Mathematics too, the number of centums dropped from 9,710 to 3,361 this year. .. .. .. well, those from Science stream of State Board and CBSE are anxiously waiting for TNEA process.. – incidentally, do you know what is random numbers ?

students at SYMA Growth ~ representational photo

The Single Window Admissions System is a process through which students completing 12th Std apply and gain admission to Engineering Colleges that are located within Tamil Nadu.  Few years back, there was - Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE), joint entrance for Engineering and Medical.

Anna University with its main campus in Guindy,  is a technical university in Tamil Nadu, India.  The Government of Tamil Nadu entrusted Anna University to conduct Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions in a transparent way. Anna University designed, developed, and adopted TNEA Single Window Counselling process to ensure that engineering aspirants get admission into engineering colleges of Tamil Nadu transparently.

TNEA process starts with the issuing of the applications forms. The date of issue of application forms is widely  publicized in all leading dailies and other media (www.annauniv.edu) is the  authentic source of information. All the engineering aspirants who wish for an engineering seat need to obtain this application form from their nearest application issuing venue and submit it duly filled. They can do it online also.   The application form includes a coding sheet, application form, instruction booklet and list of all engineering colleges booklet. The number in the coding sheet is the candidate’s application number and any reference to a candidate’s application can be made only with the application number.

After submission of forms [those who apply Online too have to submit physical forms through Registered post], they are scrutinised.  The coding sheets filled by the candidate are scanned by special machines and the data fed to the computer for further processing.  The scanned data from the coding sheet is then verified with the application data along with supporting documents attached.  The candidate should satisfy all the minimum eligibility criteria like minimum eligibility mark as per the Government of Tamil Nadu described in the TNEA booklet. One of the main eligibility criteria is the minimum eligibility mark and it is the sum of marks obtained in Physics, Chemistry and Maths divided by sum of maximum marks in Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Aggregate mark or cut-off mark is the sum of Physics mark obtained scaled to 50, Chemistry mark obtained scaled to 50 and Maths mark obtained scaled to 100. Thus the maximum aggregate or cut-off mark is 200.

All the marks obtained from different board of studies will be normalized as described in the TNEA instruction booklet.The candidates are ranked based on the aggregate mark or cut-off mark. The ranked candidates will be grouped into counselling sessions ordered by rank and in turn each counselling session will be ordered rank wise. Eventually many candidates will have same aggregate mark leading to tie, which should be broken to ensure unique ranking. The following rules mentioned below is used to break the tie:

1.         If two candidates have the same aggregate marks, the candidate with higher Maths mark will be ranked above

2.         If the Maths Mark is same, then a higher Physics mark would break the tie

3.         If the Maths and Physics mark are same, then the Chemistry mark would be eventually same. The fourth optional subject mark would break the tie.

4.         If the fourth optional subject marks are also same then the candidate’s date of birth will be considered. Elder candidate gets the benefit of being ranked above.

Now that is not all – there could still be hundreds or even thousands of candidates with the same date of birth - then a 10-digit random number assigned to each candidate decides the ranking. A candidate with the highest random number will be ranked above the other. A random number is a number generated by a process, whose outcome is unpredictable, and which cannot be subsequently reliably reproduced. Before ranking, after the application scrutiny, a random number will be assigned to every candidate. In order to make this random number assignment transparent, it is assigned in public amidst the media and subsequently  published in the TNEA website. Along with the random number, the raw data captured from the coding sheet and verified during scrutiny also gets published.

After random number assignment, the rank list will be prepared and published in the website. This will be available on 22^nd June 2016 according to Anna University.  The candidates will be ranked and called for counselling based on the rank as described above. A call letter containing the date of counselling for the particular candidate for allotment of seats will be sent to the communication address. The counselling date will also be published on the TNEA website during publication of rank. The candidates may also find their counselling dates published in the leading dailies and in TNEA website.

If you are in the race ~ ‘all the best’ – if not, this may make an interesting read !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

20^th June 2016.