AIEEE 2009 Pattern farther away from what can be called ideal

Students who took AIEEE 2009 (including me) found the question paper quite different from what they expected. The maximum marks were increased to 432 from 315 for the previous some years. The negative marking too, was one-fourth of the correct marks for questions (this instruction on the front page of question paper wasn't made quite clear though), as opposed to one-third of the correct marks in AIEEE 2008 and before. The marking scheme wasn't constant throughout. There were sets of 4 and 8 marks worth questions. Assertion-reason type questions were found in Physics, as also a comprehension passage.

What is the good thing about this format?
Since the maximum marks are increased, this gives a more accurate evaluation of candidates. The difficulty level in Mathematics was higher, putting intelligent candidates to advantage. Comprehensions tested students' understanding in short time.

And the bad thing...
There were questions worth eight marks in the question paper, meaning the student gets 8 marks for marking correct choice and -2 (negative) for the wrong one. So the difference in the total marks of a student in the two cases where he gets such a question right and where he doesn't, is 10 marks, which is a significantly large figure.

And just in case you're looking for AIEEE 2009 solutions, visit the Aakash Institute site.