Work in progress: On entrance test criteria for CS and IT UG programs

Abstract

Indian universities broadly follow an entrance process for undergraduate engineering process in which physics, chemistry and mathematics based questions are asked. Either the individual scores or some combination of these scores is used to set the admission criterion for different engineering streams. However, it has not been analyzed whether this is a good predictor of undergraduate performance or not, especially in Indian context. The broad goal of this research is to understand the relationship between entrance criterion and undergraduate Computer Science/Information Technology performance. The analysis includes data collected from the students who appeared in the entrance exams and took admission in IIIT-Delhi in between 2008 to 2010. The scores obtained in entrance exams and cumulative grade point average earned during the first year of their studies are analyzed. Preliminary analysis suggests that for computer science undergraduate studies, mathematics or numerical understanding is an important aspect. Further, logic and aptitude based tests are better correlated in context of computer science education.