Chennai: Following the success of Tamil Nadu’s residential training programme for basic science students to crack entrance tests for prestigious institutions such as IITs, NITs and IISERs, there has been a huge surge of interest this year. As many as 5,014 UG and PG students from govt arts and science colleges applied for the training this year compared to 500 students last year.As many as nine students out of 165 students who attended the training joined IITs, NITs and other institutions last year.The two-week-long residential programme will give exposure to undergraduate and postgraduate students studying physics, chemistry and maths to entrance tests such as IIT JAM (Joint Admission Test for Masters), JEST (Joint Entrance Screening Test), GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) and National Eligibility Test (NET).“The training programme launched to improve students conceptual understanding in physics, chemistry and maths. It is aimed to strengthen students’ analytical and problem-solving skills and prepare them for national level competitive exams,” an official from higher education department said.Experienced faculty members will train students to solve problems in physics, chemistry and maths subjects and answer higher-order thinking-based questions asked in the previous entrance tests.Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE), which is organising the training programme, will conduct a screening test to select students in the first week of Sept. About 180 students will be selected for the residential training programme.“Students also will get an orientation about the scholarships, research fellowships offered by prestigious institutions such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at this training,” the official added.The training is likely to be conducted in two phases — first phase in Oct and second phase in Dec.S Govindhan, who attended the residential training last year, has joined MSc chemistry at IIT Madras. He said the training programme gave him exposure to entrance tests and opportunities in the prestigious research institutions.Higher education minister P Viswanathan gave a cash reward to students who joined premier institutions in July.
