4 ms·

Whoa.. talk about disrupting the IIT-prep cottage industry! Of course, I haven't seen the details of whether it's an effective tool or not, but as a free servi

Whoa.. talk about disrupting the IIT-prep cottage industry! Of course, I haven't seen the details of whether it's an effective tool or not, but as a free service that can only improve and scale over time .. should be a gamechanger. (For those outside India who are not aware of the exam that the academy is targeted at, its for admission to a collection of premier Engineering schools in the country. The exam is taken by over 1 million students annually, with a ~ 1% acceptance rate. There is a huge cottage industry of paid 'tutorial classes' and online programs to help students succeed in the exam.)

yunohn 6y ago
> IIT-prep cottage industry I'm not sure "cottage" industry is the right characterisation. It's worth over 2B$ [1], and has existed for over a decade. There are behemoths like Byjus, Kota, FIITJEE, etc. and innumerable informal options. 1. https://inc42.com/datalab/with-the-largest-share-of-funding-test-prep-startups-leading-the-edtech-charge-in-india/ https://inc42.com/datalab/with-the-largest-share-of-funding-...
- palerdot 6y ago
  > I'm not sure "cottage" industry is the right characterisation. GP's comment is more about mushrooming of tutorials/tuition centers on every nook and corner for IIT JEE prep, similar to any cottage industry.
- ffpip 6y ago
  Byjus is irrelevant in the IIT cottage industry. They are newer, and only online. And no company can convince Indian parents that online is better that 8am-8pm classroom coaching.
  - finnh 6y ago
    Does "no company" include Amazon? I'm going through this with my (young) children and coronavirus. Having seen the varied abilities of their elementary school teachers makes me think a top-flight online course could do much better than some of the actual people working at their school. There's no question the best teachers will outperform the best online content. But what are your odds of hiring the best teachers?
    - ffpip 6y ago
      > Does "no company" include Amazon? Yes. > I'm going through this with my (young) children and coronavirus. Having seen... No. Trust me. You will regret putting your child(ren) through online education. It sucks. I've tried it partially for 2 years. My friend is doing it now, preparing for JEE. Preparing for JEE is not easy. I had hopes of getting in after getting a good score in the 1st Mains attempt, but just gave up during covid lockdown. Social interaction is very very important. Just trust me. I have nothing else to say. Not really interested in going through my 2 year ordeal in this comment. Don't put your child in online edu in India. especially not JEE prep You obviously aren't an average Indian parent (uses HN). So you might choose online for your kid. I'm just warning you.
disown 6y ago
> The exam is taken by over 1 million students annually, with a ~ 1% acceptance rate. Maybe india needs more "premier engineering schools" if the acceptance rate is so low. Harvard and MIT have acceptance rates near 5%.
- strikelaserclaw 6y ago
  Definitely agree, for a country with close to 2B population, it is absurd how their education system is divided into "a couple exceptional schools and the rest are really bad"
  - covfefeblack 6y ago
    As an Indian who didn't make it into the IITs (and instead attended a different school)"The rest are really bad" isn't entirely accurate: - Facilities aren't that much worse than the IITs - Student quality varies - there's smart/motivated and dumb/demotivated/burnt-out kids - unlike the IITs that has a much higher quality bar - but you have both kinds - Faculty is the real difference.. since faculty in India (esp Engineering) isn't geared to research the quality can really vary wildly - Basically - if you're great at what you do - academics isn't a great track in India unlike the US
  - dreamer7 6y ago
    That's a strange way to put it. More accurate is - "a handful of exceptional schools, plenty of good ones and plenty of bad ones".
- ffpip 6y ago
  It is not ever a 1% acceptance rate. 15,00,000 students take the exam and only 10,000 qualify. From that, only 3000 get into the ''premier'' IITs
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  The real question is how many serious applicant to they get? I assume there are a lot of kids who simply won't bother applying to MIT and Harvard just because they know they aren't going to be competitive. But it sounds like the IIT entrance exam is almost mandatory (and used by other colleges?).

yunohn 6y ago

> IIT-prep cottage industry I'm not sure "cottage" industry is the right characterisation. It's worth over 2B$ [1], and has existed for over a decade. There are behemoths like Byjus, Kota, FIITJEE, etc. and innumerable informal options. 1. https://inc42.com/datalab/with-the-largest-share-of-funding-test-prep-startups-leading-the-edtech-charge-in-india/ https://inc42.com/datalab/with-the-largest-share-of-funding-...

palerdot 6y ago
> I'm not sure "cottage" industry is the right characterisation. GP's comment is more about mushrooming of tutorials/tuition centers on every nook and corner for IIT JEE prep, similar to any cottage industry.
ffpip 6y ago
Byjus is irrelevant in the IIT cottage industry. They are newer, and only online. And no company can convince Indian parents that online is better that 8am-8pm classroom coaching.
- finnh 6y ago
  Does "no company" include Amazon? I'm going through this with my (young) children and coronavirus. Having seen the varied abilities of their elementary school teachers makes me think a top-flight online course could do much better than some of the actual people working at their school. There's no question the best teachers will outperform the best online content. But what are your odds of hiring the best teachers?
  - ffpip 6y ago
    > Does "no company" include Amazon? Yes. > I'm going through this with my (young) children and coronavirus. Having seen... No. Trust me. You will regret putting your child(ren) through online education. It sucks. I've tried it partially for 2 years. My friend is doing it now, preparing for JEE. Preparing for JEE is not easy. I had hopes of getting in after getting a good score in the 1st Mains attempt, but just gave up during covid lockdown. Social interaction is very very important. Just trust me. I have nothing else to say. Not really interested in going through my 2 year ordeal in this comment. Don't put your child in online edu in India. especially not JEE prep You obviously aren't an average Indian parent (uses HN). So you might choose online for your kid. I'm just warning you.

disown 6y ago

> The exam is taken by over 1 million students annually, with a ~ 1% acceptance rate. Maybe india needs more "premier engineering schools" if the acceptance rate is so low. Harvard and MIT have acceptance rates near 5%.

strikelaserclaw 6y ago
Definitely agree, for a country with close to 2B population, it is absurd how their education system is divided into "a couple exceptional schools and the rest are really bad"
- covfefeblack 6y ago
  As an Indian who didn't make it into the IITs (and instead attended a different school)"The rest are really bad" isn't entirely accurate: - Facilities aren't that much worse than the IITs - Student quality varies - there's smart/motivated and dumb/demotivated/burnt-out kids - unlike the IITs that has a much higher quality bar - but you have both kinds - Faculty is the real difference.. since faculty in India (esp Engineering) isn't geared to research the quality can really vary wildly - Basically - if you're great at what you do - academics isn't a great track in India unlike the US
- dreamer7 6y ago
  That's a strange way to put it. More accurate is - "a handful of exceptional schools, plenty of good ones and plenty of bad ones".
ffpip 6y ago
It is not ever a 1% acceptance rate. 15,00,000 students take the exam and only 10,000 qualify. From that, only 3000 get into the ''premier'' IITs
908B64B197 6y ago
The real question is how many serious applicant to they get? I assume there are a lot of kids who simply won't bother applying to MIT and Harvard just because they know they aren't going to be competitive. But it sounds like the IIT entrance exam is almost mandatory (and used by other colleges?).