I don't know about your first point, but i think your are pretty much correct.
But according to second one you'r absolutely wrong. In most of the entrance tests, u will find that they give preference to numerical ability, calculations are very much in these entrance tests. These test include theory based objective questions which any student who had memorized everything can answer them easily. But IIT-JEE (or simply JEE) is something different. You will never face a problem of doing so much calculation in JEE. They adjust such values which are easy to solve. And about reasoning, JEE include many (although not most) questions on reasoning. Also for conceptual clarity, nearly each and every question in JEE is conceptual. All the questions are based on concepts.
The reason for not getting many 'research' candidates in JEE, is that most of the students who get admissions into IIT, are not related with reaserch works. They get good packages from many companies so they dont go to reaserch side.
For research, I guess there should be some interest too.......in general I do not find a lot of interest on that side (well, incentives matter too----> You get a truckload of money from your placement job, will you refuse that and go to research? It depends, some may actually do it - but most will not).
Regarding JEE, I do agree to a large extent - It is conceptually focused, but that still doesn't change my analysis......I said "entrance exams", not just the JEE. The one thing I do not approve of, in both the JEE and other entrance exams, is that a candidate should not be expected to score well in
all 3 subjects (PCM/PCB) in order to get admission into any stream, mainly because the whole point of going for a degree is to specialize/master some specific subject/topic.
For example, if a candidate is brilliant in physics and maths and not so good in chemistry, a poor score in chemistry should not lower his chances to apply for a physically intensive stream like Mechanical or Electrical engineering.
Similarly, a candidate who is very good in chemistry should not be hindered from getting admission into an M.Sc program in chemistry in the IISER's (for example) because of relatively poor physics and maths scores (Chemistry in general is not so mathematically intensive, unless you want to get into chemical physics like quantum chemistry, etc.).
I do agree that a proper filter is needed for selection of candidates for admission/interview - but you are dealing with students of varying aptitudes and different interests. One student may excel where another fails quite badly, and the opposite can happen for another field/subject. For example, I wasn't
great at either physics or chemistry. Why? Because my "field of interest" was physical chemistry and solid-state, atomic, quantum, molecular, nuclear and chemical physics. I couldn't do all that well in the engineering entrance exams because I couldn't master either physics or chemistry fully. But going forward, much of engineering physics and chemistry is based on interdisciplinary fields of material science and solid state physics which I now find very easy because of my prior interest and experience in those fields.
But effectively, despite being very good in those fields, I was denied my oppurtunity by the IITs and other good institutions due to a not-so-good overall score (BTW all these principles are important for ChemE and to some extent MechE).
<Disclaimer: I am not angry at anyone for this, I fully understand......I do study some engineering course now, I could care less at this time hehe
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In conclusion, I want to say that different streams of science and engineering require different things from the student, therefore selections should be made on subject-wise performance rather than overall score, and candidates should be given higher preferences for particular streams that they apply to based on their subject wise scores.
For example, if a candidate gets good scores in:
1) Physics - Mechanical, Electrical/Electronics (you will hardly come across serious chemistry after the first year), Physics M.Sc courses
2) Chemistry - Chemical, Biotechnology, Chemistry M.Sc courses, Civil (yes, Civil has quite a bit of chemistry and mostly uses only the mechanics portion of physics + some electrical)
3) Mathematics - Electrical, Instrumentation (Electrical is actually one of the most mathematically intensive engineering fields), M.Sc mathematics
4) Overall score (PCM) - Computer, Instrumentation, IT
5) Overall score (PCB) - Biomedical, Biotechnology
The selection should be done on basis of these scores first and then the selected candidates should be filtered/reordered/reorganized based on scores in the other subjects.
I could chalk up an even better methodology for selection, but given the number of candidates, it would be a tough task for the selection committees. Therfore I am going to let that go.
Please do let me know what you feel about my thoughts......I meant to say very little, but quite a lot seems to have flowed out, and for that I am sorry!