After the current court case (and the stay on counselling) and with the great ongoing debate about JEE Advanced 2017, I'd like to thrown in my 2 cents on this topic. I've starting thinking about other topics as well, but it seems that this is the most pressing issue at the current moment.
First, I'd like to discuss the "controversial" questions. Here they are, in the order that they appear in in Code 0 of the paper.
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Code 0, Paper 1
Physics
Q3. [not in the petition] While this question has not affected me personally, it has affected my friends a bit. It also lead to a bit of confusion for me in the exam, which is the reason that I only marked 2 options to be on the safer side.
The issue in this question is with option A, which states that "The emf induced in the loop is proportional to the sum of areas of the two loops". In this specific situation, this is indeed true, since 2A-A = A is proportional to 2A+A = 3A, whereas it is not true in the general case. This leads to a bit of confusion, and hence many people have marked this option.
Given Answer: B,D
Q6. [not in the petition] The issue with this question is the option D. It states that the velocity of the two pulses are same at the midpoint of the rope. While the speed is always the same, the velocity can also be the same due to the fact that it is not mentioned at what time difference they've started the two pulses. There can be a reflection at the other end and the velocity can be the same.
What's more, Brittanica Encyclopedia notes that in common usage, wave speed and wave velocity are used interchangeably.
Given Answer: A,C
Q7. [Currently being debated] The argument of the petitioner in changing this answer is that coaching institutes have given the answer to be B,C,D. But the thing is, I think many coaching institutes have missed the fact that the emissivity e in the question is not given in the question to be 1. Thus, only one option now matches, which does not depend on emissivity, which IIT has given as the answer.
Given Answer: D
Chemistry
Q28. [not in the petition] The first problem with this question is the 3rd compound from the left on the second row. While the question clearly states "aromatic compound", this is not an aromatic compound but rather a compound containing an aromatic ring. My friends have given me references from some books as well as a UCLA pdf of chemistry they found online.
Another issue here is the assumption that the ions will be included in the compounds. This is quite a controversial decision and here the disregard of specific terms seems to contradict the decision in favour of specificity in the wave velocity/speed question. It becomes confusing, to take the meaning which is intended or the meaning which is written on the paper? This is definitely not a good thing. I have marked 4 for this question, disregarding that particular compound.
Given Answer: 5
Q30. [Currently being debated] The act of giving bonus to this question has indeed benefited me; I had marked 5 instead of 6. The thing here is, that they have considered Be2 to exist and then commented on it's magnetic moment. I had assumed that it was a trap laid down by the IIT committee to catch the people who believe that Be2 exists; but it turned out the opposite way.
I still feel this should've been given as 5 or 6, since that would have nullified both the Hindi paper problems and this problem of giving Be2.
Given Answer: Bonus
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Code 0, Paper 2
Physics
Q10. [not in the petition] I am one of the only people I know who got partial marks in this question. For me, the issue is with Option A. Here, the flux has been given a negative sign and I genuinely got confused as to the sign. Thus, I only marked Option D. The thing is, standard textbooks like Griffiths (which I believe is used in IIT itself) state that there is no convention on direction for open surfaces.
Thus, I believe atleast technically I am right in saying that Option D alone is correct. However, I believe the best solution would have been to give both Options (A,D) and Option (D) as an answer as I doubt many people would have marked D alone as it is. I did include these arguments in my challenge of answer keys but there was no response.
Given Answer: A,D
Q11. [not in the petition] There is a bit of a wording issue in the question in Option A, which confuses as to whether consider the pseudo torque or not. My friends were affected by this and the answer should've been given as Options (C,D) or Options (A,C,D) in my opinion.
Given Answer: A,C,D
Q17. [Currently being debated] While changing this answer to A or C would benefit me as I've marked A. But that is beside the point; this question has an answer which does not match any option. The fair thing to do is to give a bonus.
Given Answer: Bonus
Chemistry
Q30. [not in the petition] The problem in the question is Option D. While this is indeed true for hard bases, it is not true for soft bases. While I was not aware of this during the exam and left the option due to not knowing this (partial marking), some of my friends informed me about this after the exam.
It indeed seems that technically Option D is not correct and should not have been included in the answer.
Given Answer: A,B,D
Q35. [not in the petition] The problem here is the closeness of the options A,B,C. NCERT states that dehydration occurs when a water molecule is lost, which does occur here. This creates a bit of confusion to the answer that has to be marked.
Given Answer: C
Mathematics
Q50. [Currently being debated] This question shows the mistake the petitioner is making in my humble opinion - relying on coaching institutes which agree with each other does not mean that they are right. Putting the values of both Alpha and Beta as 2(pi) in this question leads to the answer being Options (A,B,C,D) and not Options (B,C) as was proposed.
Given Answer: Bonus
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Overall, I do not think that this year's JEE Advanced paper was a success as compared to previous years. The above mentioned controversial questions account for (+18,-6) in Paper 1 and (+22,-8) in Paper 2.
Also consider the fact that the marks difference between the 1st and 500th ranker this year is only about 60 marks, as compared to about 120 marks last year.
What I really didn't like about this year's JEE is the quite easier questions, and the errors to go with it. It makes the ranklist a bit meaningless as many students with a similar knowledge level and problem solving capability are simply segregated on the basis of the controversial questions above.
In my honest opinion, last year's JEE was a rather good example of what a JEE should be like - it did not have a LOT of debatable questions like the above (I only found about 2-3 debate worthy) and had a good slew of questions across difficulty levels which really made the ranklist meaningful and properly evaluated the understanding of the canditate.
Another thing I want to comment on is the unyielding trust on coaching institutes - in my understanding, it does not make sense to base one's judgement completely based on a coaching institute's answer key. These coaching institutes also have an internal competition to be the fastest to release the answer key - In this hurry, sometimes they miss a word here or there.
While I have had great teachers in coaching, you should still take everything with a pinch of salt. After all, the teachers are human and possibilities for mistakes are always there - some examples are the emissivity question and the 2pi question in this year's paper. Moreover, just trusting coaching institutes to prove that an answer is right does not work - it is in fact a fallacy. I have been there on the days when they make answer keys. There is a great rush and lots of commotion; mistakes are made while translating answers to different codes, etc etc. in the race to release a key quickly.
Moreover, sometimes we as humans tend to be detached from reality. In this line, I refer to the rank predictors of various coaching institutes. I have been extremely fortunate in having great friends who kept giving me information on the various going - ons even after the exam and hence I was able to predict my rank quite well. However, no matter how much I told some of my friends to start looking for other options on the basis of their JEE marks - they did not yield on the basis of "Coaching predictions". I think this is quite detrimental as it can lead you to not thinking about all your options - instead living in your own bubble of expecting to get a good branch. After all, JEE is a relative exam! It matters what others have scored as well. I have documented my predictions on my Quora profile, which can be found here.
Final note: As of finishing this post, I have been informed that the IIT counsellings have been given the thumbs up. While this is indeed in my opinion the best solution at the current time in the system, it does not set a good precedent. But there is hope for JEE - and after all, what is life without hope?
P.S. Please note that all of the above is my opinion (and I do not have the references for the facts I've stated anymore, although you can google and try to find them yourself). Please do not hold me responsible for any inaccuracy in the above that affects you! Cheers and a wish for a better system for this beautiful country of ours.
First, I'd like to discuss the "controversial" questions. Here they are, in the order that they appear in in Code 0 of the paper.
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Code 0, Paper 1
Physics
Q3. [not in the petition] While this question has not affected me personally, it has affected my friends a bit. It also lead to a bit of confusion for me in the exam, which is the reason that I only marked 2 options to be on the safer side.
The issue in this question is with option A, which states that "The emf induced in the loop is proportional to the sum of areas of the two loops". In this specific situation, this is indeed true, since 2A-A = A is proportional to 2A+A = 3A, whereas it is not true in the general case. This leads to a bit of confusion, and hence many people have marked this option.
Given Answer: B,D
Q6. [not in the petition] The issue with this question is the option D. It states that the velocity of the two pulses are same at the midpoint of the rope. While the speed is always the same, the velocity can also be the same due to the fact that it is not mentioned at what time difference they've started the two pulses. There can be a reflection at the other end and the velocity can be the same.
What's more, Brittanica Encyclopedia notes that in common usage, wave speed and wave velocity are used interchangeably.
Given Answer: A,C
Q7. [Currently being debated] The argument of the petitioner in changing this answer is that coaching institutes have given the answer to be B,C,D. But the thing is, I think many coaching institutes have missed the fact that the emissivity e in the question is not given in the question to be 1. Thus, only one option now matches, which does not depend on emissivity, which IIT has given as the answer.
Given Answer: D
Chemistry
Q28. [not in the petition] The first problem with this question is the 3rd compound from the left on the second row. While the question clearly states "aromatic compound", this is not an aromatic compound but rather a compound containing an aromatic ring. My friends have given me references from some books as well as a UCLA pdf of chemistry they found online.
Another issue here is the assumption that the ions will be included in the compounds. This is quite a controversial decision and here the disregard of specific terms seems to contradict the decision in favour of specificity in the wave velocity/speed question. It becomes confusing, to take the meaning which is intended or the meaning which is written on the paper? This is definitely not a good thing. I have marked 4 for this question, disregarding that particular compound.
Given Answer: 5
Q30. [Currently being debated] The act of giving bonus to this question has indeed benefited me; I had marked 5 instead of 6. The thing here is, that they have considered Be2 to exist and then commented on it's magnetic moment. I had assumed that it was a trap laid down by the IIT committee to catch the people who believe that Be2 exists; but it turned out the opposite way.
I still feel this should've been given as 5 or 6, since that would have nullified both the Hindi paper problems and this problem of giving Be2.
Given Answer: Bonus
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Code 0, Paper 2
Physics
Q10. [not in the petition] I am one of the only people I know who got partial marks in this question. For me, the issue is with Option A. Here, the flux has been given a negative sign and I genuinely got confused as to the sign. Thus, I only marked Option D. The thing is, standard textbooks like Griffiths (which I believe is used in IIT itself) state that there is no convention on direction for open surfaces.
Thus, I believe atleast technically I am right in saying that Option D alone is correct. However, I believe the best solution would have been to give both Options (A,D) and Option (D) as an answer as I doubt many people would have marked D alone as it is. I did include these arguments in my challenge of answer keys but there was no response.
Given Answer: A,D
Q11. [not in the petition] There is a bit of a wording issue in the question in Option A, which confuses as to whether consider the pseudo torque or not. My friends were affected by this and the answer should've been given as Options (C,D) or Options (A,C,D) in my opinion.
Given Answer: A,C,D
Q17. [Currently being debated] While changing this answer to A or C would benefit me as I've marked A. But that is beside the point; this question has an answer which does not match any option. The fair thing to do is to give a bonus.
Given Answer: Bonus
Chemistry
Q30. [not in the petition] The problem in the question is Option D. While this is indeed true for hard bases, it is not true for soft bases. While I was not aware of this during the exam and left the option due to not knowing this (partial marking), some of my friends informed me about this after the exam.
It indeed seems that technically Option D is not correct and should not have been included in the answer.
Given Answer: A,B,D
Q35. [not in the petition] The problem here is the closeness of the options A,B,C. NCERT states that dehydration occurs when a water molecule is lost, which does occur here. This creates a bit of confusion to the answer that has to be marked.
Given Answer: C
Mathematics
Q50. [Currently being debated] This question shows the mistake the petitioner is making in my humble opinion - relying on coaching institutes which agree with each other does not mean that they are right. Putting the values of both Alpha and Beta as 2(pi) in this question leads to the answer being Options (A,B,C,D) and not Options (B,C) as was proposed.
Given Answer: Bonus
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x
Overall, I do not think that this year's JEE Advanced paper was a success as compared to previous years. The above mentioned controversial questions account for (+18,-6) in Paper 1 and (+22,-8) in Paper 2.
Also consider the fact that the marks difference between the 1st and 500th ranker this year is only about 60 marks, as compared to about 120 marks last year.
What I really didn't like about this year's JEE is the quite easier questions, and the errors to go with it. It makes the ranklist a bit meaningless as many students with a similar knowledge level and problem solving capability are simply segregated on the basis of the controversial questions above.
In my honest opinion, last year's JEE was a rather good example of what a JEE should be like - it did not have a LOT of debatable questions like the above (I only found about 2-3 debate worthy) and had a good slew of questions across difficulty levels which really made the ranklist meaningful and properly evaluated the understanding of the canditate.
Another thing I want to comment on is the unyielding trust on coaching institutes - in my understanding, it does not make sense to base one's judgement completely based on a coaching institute's answer key. These coaching institutes also have an internal competition to be the fastest to release the answer key - In this hurry, sometimes they miss a word here or there.
While I have had great teachers in coaching, you should still take everything with a pinch of salt. After all, the teachers are human and possibilities for mistakes are always there - some examples are the emissivity question and the 2pi question in this year's paper. Moreover, just trusting coaching institutes to prove that an answer is right does not work - it is in fact a fallacy. I have been there on the days when they make answer keys. There is a great rush and lots of commotion; mistakes are made while translating answers to different codes, etc etc. in the race to release a key quickly.
Moreover, sometimes we as humans tend to be detached from reality. In this line, I refer to the rank predictors of various coaching institutes. I have been extremely fortunate in having great friends who kept giving me information on the various going - ons even after the exam and hence I was able to predict my rank quite well. However, no matter how much I told some of my friends to start looking for other options on the basis of their JEE marks - they did not yield on the basis of "Coaching predictions". I think this is quite detrimental as it can lead you to not thinking about all your options - instead living in your own bubble of expecting to get a good branch. After all, JEE is a relative exam! It matters what others have scored as well. I have documented my predictions on my Quora profile, which can be found here.
Final note: As of finishing this post, I have been informed that the IIT counsellings have been given the thumbs up. While this is indeed in my opinion the best solution at the current time in the system, it does not set a good precedent. But there is hope for JEE - and after all, what is life without hope?
P.S. Please note that all of the above is my opinion (and I do not have the references for the facts I've stated anymore, although you can google and try to find them yourself). Please do not hold me responsible for any inaccuracy in the above that affects you! Cheers and a wish for a better system for this beautiful country of ours.