Test-taking in India is a big deal. There are exams for EVERYTHING.

Want to join the government? (UPSC)

Want to join a nationalized bank? (IBPS)

Want to join an engineering college? (JEE)

Given that this is the path we’ve decided to go through as a country of a billion in selecting people, I sense a distinct lack of research into the effectiveness of these exams.

I see so much on the SATs (as a measure of privilege, comparisons with life-indicators, correlation with IQ, life-expectancy) on my Twitter that the fact that there seems to be none at all for the JEE or any of these exams is very surprising. What are the equivalent of those scientists in India working on? Is there research that I simply don’t know about?

It’s widely believed that the JEE is not simply a test of raw IQ but also a test of whether the student put in the hard-work and effort over 2 years. It is also believed that the springing up of test-prep industry means that the JEE is on average, selecting students with less potential.

I don’t disagree but I would like it if data showed this. Maybe if we take the test-scores before the test-prep industries sprung up, find the correlation with iq and then find it after, they should be different.

Figure out how much of a role privilege plays in these examinations.

And these are just a couple of ideas from someone who is just a curious uninformed bystander. There are potentially hundreds of such ideas out there. India has 17% of the world’s population but to me it feels like we’re living off science performed in other countries on their populations which is simply not going to be sufficient anymore.

We need to do our own research.