WBJEE 2016 Scheduled for May 17

The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) for the year 2022 will be held on May 17. The aspirants have to be ready to take the nine-hour marathon exam as all the papers- biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics-will be held on the same day.

Again, due to the unavailability of dates during the weekend, the exam will be held on Tuesday, a weekday. The same will mark a departure from tradition.

Held generally in April, the exam, which is seen as a ticket to top engineering and medical institutes in the state, has been pushed back to May as the state boards-Madhyamik and Higher Secondary-are to be held early on account of the 2022 assembly elections. Instead of March, the Madhyamik and Higher Secondary will be held in April next year. However, the ICSE, ISC and CBSE examinations will be scheduled as usual and go on till April.

According to the WBJEE Board officials, the weekend dates for the month of May has already been booked for other all-India-based exams. Hence, the board had no option but to conduct the test on a weekday.

Over 1.5 lakh students take WBJEE exam each year. However, the scheduling of the exam on a weekday is far from heartening news for the candidates, especially for both medical and engineering aspirants, as they would start early, at 9 am, when the biology exam is scheduled. This will be followed by the physics and chemistry papers and those aspiring for engineering seats will also have to finish their mathematics exam by 5.30 pm.

Asked why the exam will be a marathon nine-hour affair, Shojol Dasgupta, acting chairman of WBJEE board, said, "In order to conduct the exam, we need about 300 educational institutions as exam centres, which may not be available in 2022 because of the assembly elections. Several schools and colleges will turn into EVM centers, strong rooms, counting centers and voting centres. Taking this into consideration, this was the best option for us," Dasgupta said.