Computers Today, June 1-15, 2000, The Net; The Behest Of an E-test

June 1-15, 2000 THE NET

EXAM SITES
The Behest Of an E-test

There are more than 75 sites in the country today which promise to help you in preparing for the Common Entrance Tests (CETs). What do they offer that training institutes don't?

By K. Jayadev

April is not the cruellest month for students. It's the May-June period, during which time most of the competitive exams are held. Young people across the country can be seen busy brushing up courseware and taking mock tests before appearing for the 'real' exam. To help them in their endeavour, close to 75 Web sites have cropped up in the recent past, promising them "the right guidance" in preparing for the Common Entrance Tests (CETs).

Be it medical, engineering, MBA or MCA entrance tests, these Web sites are aiming to attract the student community to log on to their sites and prepare for the examinations. Most of these sites are conducting online mock examinations. Even evaluations are passed on to an individual user to assess his/her capabilities.

Are the coaching centres for competitive examinations on their way out with the advent of these sites? Unlikely, say industry watchers, since the Internet penetration in India within the age group of 16- 25 is less than 3 per cent.

These sites, however, are expecting to woo more visitors in the coming years, for Internet penetration is likely to increase manifold. The CET sites are now in the process of making an impression on the minds of the youth and parents, while they plan to convert these 'impressions' into customers later. With huge content and exhaustive probable question papers, the sites are likely to become the 'modern guide' for those preparing for competitive exams. However, the biggest drawback is that most of them have similar question papers (mock tests). Moreover, there isn't much to differentiate between two such sites.

Reaching out to People

The first objective seems to be reaching out to the masses. All the E-learning sites are today trying to create a brand name for themselves. They are targeting customers through online and, mostly, offline publicity. Some are directly writing mails to the students, while a few have advertised with other popular sites. But most are resorting to putting up hoardings and banners near colleges and educational blocks in metros and other cities. "We have managed to get the E-mail IDs of students selected for group discussions and interviews for IIMs. We have directly written to these students and also placed banner advetisements near premier colleges in prominent cities," says

Y. Srinivas, director of Manac Infotech, the company which has recently launched its education site called www.primetutor.com.

While the small players are taking the route of directly entering the mailboxes of students, big players like egurucool.com and entranceguru.com are going in for advertisement blitz. But with nearly 75 sites, it is difficult not only for the students (in choosing a site), but also for the players to make a mark for themselves.

"Basically, these sites are all similar and have nothing unique to offer. And though this is a right step in popularising the E-learning concept in the country, the vast number of similar sites is a bit confusing to the students. They are unable to take a decision about which site to make their favourite. There is a need to guide the students in making use of these sites. Otherwise, the efforts by site developers will go waste," says P. Ranga Rao, an educationist based in Hyderabad.

Offerings on a Platter

The sites are targeting students who are planning to write entrance tests for professional courses. But they prefer to be called as educational portals or E-learning sites. They stick to the idea of providing information only on entrance examinations, sample tests and dates, with a sprinkling of general information and tips on how to prepare for these examinations.

The site www.egurucool.com is one of the most talked about and much publicised E-learning sites. From CBSE courses to medicine to MBA, the site has well-researched contents for the student community. It has special sections for those planning to study abroad. It also has pages for parents, about various schools in different cities and interesting interviews of toppers from various CETs. The site is exhaustive in information and contains a huge database of sample question papers and their answeres for various courses.

While egurucool.com is planning to become an educational portal, others like www.entrance guru.com have developed content only for their target audience. As the name suggests, entrance-guru.com hepls students prepare for CETs conducted throughout the country. Though it lacks in few sections, the site is well designed and attractive and that has sample papers for various professional courses-from medicine to engineering to management. If it could improve its database on questions papers and tests procedures, the site is sure to catch the attention of the student community,

For IIM aspirants, the site www.primetutor.com promises to meet most of their requirements. Developed and supported by three ex-IIM graduates, it has lots of tips and counselling on how to go about group discussions and interviews. It has a special section on how to face the Combined Admission Test (CAT). The site, however, focuses on students who have cleared CAT and are preparing for the interview and group discussion. This is the reason why it has separate bulletin boards for group discussions and interviews. But the site lacks innovative design, which others have adopted to attract visitors.

Focusing on guiding the students in clearing CETs is another site-www.entranceonline.com. The site again has very simple design and content. It has a special section on important dates on which various CETs would be conducted. Most importantly, the site has well prepared answer sheet samples. But the samples are very simplistic and need to be updated more frequently. One of the interesting ones among the CET sites is the www.iitjee.freservers.com. It has been developed by two students currently studying in IIT Kanpur and IIT Mumbai. The duo has developed the site keeping in view what they looked for when they were preparing for the IIT entrance test. The site comprises of information on 'preparation fundas' and 'books to refer'. Special sections like 'interactive' are definitely attractive and might bring in more visitors. They also have some tests called 'practice stuff', which have been developed well. But compared to bigger sites like egurucool.com and entranceonline.com, the site caters to IIT aspirants only.

The World of Mock Tests

The entrance exam mania over the Net has brought in numerous players from all corners of the country and from all backgrounds. Every one is managing to have as many question papers as possible with huge databases of probable questions and their answers. "Most of the sites have similar questions with similar choice of answers. It seems that the source for all these sites is the same. They, in all probability, are directly lifting from published guides. Few months down the line, many of these might end up with copyright problems. The only idea (behind developing these sites) is that the promoters sense some money in this field in the future," says Ranga Rao.

Hyderabad-based training institute Vignan has launched www.eamcet.com, a site dedicated to those taking the Andhra Pradesh Government's CET for engineering, agriculture and medicine. However, the site needs drastic changes in content as well as design if it has to compete with sites like eamcetpro.com, alleamcet.com, getcet.com and onlineeamcet.com.

Another site, www.hotexams.com, plans to provide information for all kinds of CETs. Not just for professional courses, it also has sample test papers for bank PO (probationary officer) examinations, civil services and other professions. Though lacking in content, the site has special section for success stories and for chat as well.

The site, www.padayi.com, comes with a warning that it would be best viewed using IE 5 (Web browser) with Flash. Launched recently, the site needs to improve its content just like many others. Apart from the regular sections for CETs, it has one on GK (general knowledge) and another on educational news. It also has bulletin boards which allows the visitor to post his/her message on the latest and hot topics.

Zee Interactive Learning, which is into E-education, has also made its presence felt in the CET arena through its zedgateway.com. It plans to address all sections with its comprehensive database of question papers and sample tests. But the site is very slow to download and takes you to zeelearn.com to be diverted later to zedgateway.com.

Whom are They Addressing?

Despite the growing popularity, the sites are unable to attract 'hits' in good numbers, which means that still the number of students taking help of these sites in preparing for the exams is minuscule. Says Anantha Krishnan, a student preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination, "When there are good institutes round the corner there is no need for us to log on to these sites. Maybe, if they (the sites) can provide something which is not available with the (neighbourhood) trainers then we can think of visiting these sites."

Most of the big cities today have specialised training institutes, which have similar databases of probable questions. Moreover, they provide the much-needed physical (real-time interactive) guidance. There are also dozens of CD-ROMs in the market that provide sample question papers and a database of more than 20,000 questions. Hence, these sites have to offer something more than the institutes or CD-ROMs if they want to become popular. Going by the present content on these Web sites, they have very little of that "extra". Maybe, after lots of brain- storming and trial and error, they might come up with newer aspects of guidance. "When we launched the site (www.primetutor.com) we thought more clicks would come from cities like Delhi where the number of students making it to the IIMs is large. But to our surprise we received more hits from places like Indore, Kanpur and Gwalior, maybe because there are not many good coaching institutes in these places," says Y. Srinivas.

But the question of Net penetration and connectivity arises when we talk about smaller cities. Maybe it will also get addressed with the private gateways coming up and the Net usage skyrocketing. These CET sites will then find the right audience-both in quantity and quality.

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