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Getting into one of the top engineering colleges is a dream for many but getting admitted in those isn’t a cakewalk and clearing entrance exam is the gateway. JEE Main 2018 which is one of the most sought-after entrances invited approximately 11.5 lakh applications in the current year. And, the national level entrance exam provides admission to candidates in the prestigious IITs, NITs, IIITs and other Government funded colleges for their B.Tech courses. On the other hand, KEAM is a state-level exam conducted for admission to Engineering courses.
But how should one decide that which test to go for? There are a lot of factors to be considered and most of the students are not aware of these. So today, we bring you the most comprehensive comparison of State level entrance tests of Kerala and National level entrance tests. We are sure that you will get a clear idea of which tests to go for, after reading this piece of information.
Colleges under tests
JEE being the national level exam, has much more colleges within its scope than KEAM. There are approximately more than 1200 colleges only under JEE Main, and when you add JEE Advanced, there mighty IITs also join the list. So there is no dearth of options under JEE.
KEAM 2018 is state level exam and still holds 150+ college under it. That is surely not a small number and you have some very good colleges under it. College of Engineering Trivandrum, Government Engineering College Trissur, Mahatma Gandhi University are some of the best colleges under KEAM.
Comparison of Examination Pattern
KEAM 2018 comprises two papers, Paper 1 and Paper 2. Both papers will have 120 questions each, to be completed in 150 minutes. The subjects in paper 1 will be Physics and Chemistry, and paper 2 will have questions from Mathematics only. Also, a noteworthy thing is that KEAM is an offline pen and paper based exam.
On the other hand, JEE is also a two staged exam. First paper is JEE Main, which has 90 questions to be done in 180 minutes. 30 questions will be there each from Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. JEE Main is applicable for most of the colleges, while if you want to take admission into IITs, then you will have to appear in JEE Advanced as well.
Marking scheme of both the papers is same, 4 marks for every correct answer and -1 for each incorrect response. Also, JEE Main provides you the option to choose the examination mode, so you can appear in either online or offline mode.
Difficulty level and competition
Here comes the important part, the competition and the difficulty level. JEE is a highly competitive exam and is certainly not easy to crack. First, more than a million candidates appear to score high enough to be in the top 2 lakh candidates (so that they can qualify for JEE Advanced), and then these 2 lakh appear for the 10,000 seats in IITs. Although, a lot of colleges accept JEE scores, but the total seats in IIITs, IITs, NITs and GFTIs are around 36,000. Now we guess you are smart enough to calculate the success ratio and to understand the competition level. Do not forget that the level of questions is also going to be very high in JEE.
But it does not mean than KEAM is easy. The level of difficulty keeps on changing for year by year. On a general note, KEAM 2018 is definitely little easier than JEE and has a lesser competition than JEE. To get a seat in top 3 government colleges, you need to get a rank in top 1000 candidates at least. And to understand how difficult it is, you can relate it to the fact than more than 55,000 candidates qualify for the counselling of KEAM. Also, a thing worth considering is that KEAM takes into account your scores in PCM subjects in Class 12 exams as well. So the competition level and the difficulty level, though lesser than JEE, is still high.
KEAM or JEE – Which one to go for?
Again, the question of whether one should go for KEAM or JEE has no straight answer. It more or less depends upon your choice of colleges, as there is not a huge difference in difficulty levels. If you want to get a good government college in Kerala or South India only, then go for KEAM 2018. However, if you are targeting NITs or IITs, then JEE is the only option.
KEAM is going to be entirely based on the state syllabus of Kerala, while JEE is based on national NCERT syllabus. There is no dearth of opportunities in both the tests, the choice is yours! We hope that this article was helpful to you. We wish you all the best for your future.
