11 th Admission 2011 - Class XI admissions: 23 students show up with 100%-plus

 Class XI admissions: 23 students show up with 100%-plus

Some years back, crossing the 90% barrier in any exam was considered a big achievement. Even merit list, which is now a thing of the past, used to start at 90%. The situation has changed dramatically in since last couple of years, especially for SSC exam.

First, the state government decision to awarding 20 marks for viva voice in each subject led to a surge in passing percentage as schools generously awarded these marks. Then came 25 marks for participation in sports, National Cadet Corps ( NCC), and drawing. Last year, the 'Best Five' rule that mandated that marks of only five subjects (of six) in which a student has scored the highest be considered had a telling effect on the scores. These suddenly rose to as high as 99%. Along with sports and other marks, now many students have their percentage higher than 100.

On Thursday, when the provisional merit list for bifocal courses for Standard XI was released, it had 23 candidates having a score of 100% (500/500 marks) or more. Of course, with the help of additional marks. The number is, however, less compared to last year when 31 students had such distinction. Interestingly, it's for the second time in the 11 years history of centralized admission process (CAP) that such a large number of students in the list are all at equal terms, making the competition even stiffer. It had happened two years back when many students managed to cross 100% due to percentile formula in 2008.

Since last year, the 'Best Five' policy has led to domination of merit list by the state board candidates compared to CBSE/ICSE students. Till 2009, the situation was reverse. Of 23 100%+ students, only three are from CBSE and none from ICSE. The education department has rejected application of 107 candidates for various reasons. Of them, forms of 15 candidates were rejected as they had opted for CBSE school-based exam. This comes even as impasse continues between state and CBSE boards. Even the Bombay high court had asked for a reply from CBSE after a Mumbai-based student alleged discrimination.

The education department published a list of 5,467 candidates that is led by Ayush Ingole with 512/500 marks. After accepting objections, final merit list will be released on July 9. Nearly, 1,075 CBSE candidates found their names in the list followed by 45 from ICSE and 12 from other boards.

The spot admissions will begin at Panjabrao Deshmukh auditorium at DNC from Sunday at 8am. The students are vying for over 2,000 bifocal seats. The rounds will continue till July 20. The merit list of science and commerce courses will be published on July 26 and last date of taking admission is August 1.