FIITJEE
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FIITJEE or Forum for IIT-JEE is a for-profit coaching institute in India for the IIT-JEE, AIEEE and other entrance examinations for bachelor's courses in engineering. The main FIITJEE center is in Kalu Sarai, Delhi, though FIITJEE now has correspondence courses throughout India and has also opened coaching centers at multiple points in cities across India.
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[edit] History
FIITJEE was created in 1992 by D.K. Goel, a mechanical engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Over the past fourteen years, it as grown into one of India's leading IIT-JEE preparation institutes with around 300 teachers.
[edit] Programs
[edit] Classroom programs
The three main classroom programs are:
- One Year Special Extended Classroom Program: For students studying in 11th standard
- Special Intensive Weekend Classroom Program: For students studying in 12th standard
- Special Extensive Classroom Program: For 12th pass students
[edit] Correspondence/test-based programs
These include:
- Rankers Study Material
- Achievers Study Material
- All India Test Series
- Achievers All India Test Series
[edit] Programs for students of ninth/tenth standard
FIITJEE conducts ASCENT, a two-year program for ninth standard students and a one-year program for tenth standard students with the following mixed bag of aims:
- Excellence in board examinations so that the student can enroll for the Science stream in eleventh standard
- Preparation for NTSE
- Strong fundamentals for IIT-JEE and bridging the gap between ninth/tenth standard and eleventh/twelfth standard
By introducing courses for lower standards, FIITJEE also captures students from a younger age, hoping to increase the probability of students joining for FIITJEE programmes in eleventh standard.
FIITJEE's competitor, Vidyamandir classes, has also introduced a programme for tenth standard students. This could partly be a response to FIITJEE's attempts to capture students at a younger age.
[edit] Admission procedure and options
[edit] Admission test
Entry to all of FIITJEE's classroom programmes is through an admission test. The first admission test is held in April, and subsequent admission tests are held periodically to induct new students who may have missed the first admission test. Performance in the admission test typically determines the batch to which a student gets assigned to begin with.
[edit] Merit-based scholarships
In an attempt to promote talent and encourage bright students to join the institute, FIITJEE has instituted numerous scholarships, important among them being:
- 75% scholarship as fee concession for Board topper
- 25% scholarship as fee concession for NTSE scholars
- 25% scholarship for all those who have attained a minimum of 90% in aggregate and 95% in Science/Maths or PCM
- 50% scholarship for those who have secured ranks 1-1000 in IIT-JEE and 35% scholarship for those who have secured ranks 1001 and above (having qualified the JEE) from general category. These students may enroll for improving their JEE rank.
An eligible student can claim at most one of these scholarships.
Scholarships are a way of giving out discounts to students. A lot of coaching institutes offer the same services for a much lesser amount of fees. FIITJEE has been forced to offer discounts in form of scholarship due to increasing pressure from competitors.
[edit] Performance and locus standi
[edit] Percentage success from classroom programs
According to the FIITJEE official website, the FIITJEE classroom programme showed a success rate of 75.33% in IIT-JEE 2006, with 452 out of the top 600 classroom students making it through the examination. It must, however, be kept in mind that the success rate is measured only against the top 600 students, and not against the entire student intake of FIITJEE, which is phenomenally greater.
FIITJEE's main competitor for classroom programmes in Delhi is Vidyamandir Classes, which has a student intake of approximately 250-300 students for its Regular Classroom Course, and has enjoyed success rates of around 75% in the past on this. In 2006, Vidyamandir enjoyed a success rate of 63.27%.
Note: In reality, the performance and results of both these coaching institutes are suspect.
FITJEE gives out its results by including all those who have appeared in either its test series, correspondence program or classroom program. In reality, the total percentage turns out to be only marginally better than 1%, which is the selection percentage of IITJEE
Vidyamadir Classes select about 2% of the total people who appear in their entrance examinations. The students who appear are from good financial background as the high fees allow only the upper middle class to take these expensive coaching classes. Out of these, only 67% make it past IITJEE. The net result is a mere 1.3% One wonders if these coachings institutes are any help or not?
[edit] Overall performance
According to the FIITJEE official website, 2057 of the students qualifying the IIT-JEE in 2006 were from FIITJEE. This number appears to be the total across all students who enrolled for classroom courses, correspondence courses, test series, and all India mock tests (though the criteria are not clearly specified). While viewing these statistics, it must be kept in mind that FIITJEE may not have been the primary learning resource of many of the 2057 students.
FIITJEE claims, in its official website, to have been sending the maximum number of students to the IIT-JEE for the last nine years.The numbers given above are possibly inflated and have not been verified by any third party agency
[edit] Top ranks
FIITJEE claims to have got 5 out of the top 10 ranks in IIT-JEE 2006. Again, it is not clear how many of these top rankers were students of a regular classroom course from FIITJEE.
[edit] Competition in Delhi
FIITJEE has been getting hammered from emerging competition in Delhi. While there are many competitors, FIITJEE has the distinction of being run by IITian. Its main main competitors in Delhi, having distinction of being run by IITians are Vidyamandir classes and Quest - Power Coaching for IITJEE.
FIITJEE's main competitor in Delhi is Vidyamandir Classes. In terms of scale and appearance, FIITJEE contrasts sharply with VMC: while VMC is a family-run outfit taking only 250-300 students for its Regular Classroom Programme, FIITJEE takes over a thousand students for its regular programmes. While Vidyamandir maintains a low profile and engages in selective advertising and word-of-mouth publicity, FIITJEE splashes two-page spread ads on the sports page.
Vidyamandir Classes is a small, single center privately run coaching class with 3 tutors only, that used to take 250 students for its regular classroom programmes based on a selection test. Vidyamandir classes has a reputation of high quality and low class time, which has largely been spread through word-of-mouth. Recently, however, Vidyamandir has started taking about 300 extra students under the banner of "Extended Class Room Program". They have added another set of 3 teachers. The feedback of the new set of faculty members is not as good as earlier.
Quest - Power Coaching for IITJEE is a fast growing multi center IITJEE coaching institute being run by IITians. They have multiple centers across delhi so that students do not spend time in traveling. Their programs offer IITJEE coaching along with school tutions, which is very effective for the new IITJEE pattern. They are unique as they do not advertize at all. However, their reputation is spreading really fast.
Keen to take the challenge of competitors head-on and grab top students after tenth standard, FIITJEE has employed a mix of scholarships and other attractors with aggressive marketing and advertising. Often, FIITJEE ads in Delhi papers carry explicit comparisons with competitors, whom they refer to as the second best coaching institute in Delhi. There have been instances of personal attacks on Vidyamandir's teaching strategies in some of FIITJEE's advertisements.
[edit] Advertising on the sports page
Almost every year, FIITJEE takes out a two-page spread ad with a full description of its IIT-JEE result, some time in June, in leading Indian dailies. To attract the maximum attention, these ads are often placed on the sports page.
FIITJEE stopped advertising with Times of India after a dispute, but brings out ads regularly in Hindustan Times.
[edit] Setting standards for coaching institutes
In 2003, FIITJEE came out with an offer to train teachers for IIT-JEE coaching.
