KEAM 2012: OPTION REGN PROCESS

BY Our Entrance Exam Expert

June 21,2012: The facility for Registering options for Courses and Colleges included in the allotment of the Commissioner for Entrance Examination (CEE), Kerala has begun at http://www.cee.kerala.gov.in/main.php  Registration of options can be done till  3 pm on 5.7.2012.

Registering of Options for courses and colleges is a pre-requisite for allotments to Professional Degree Courses, Kerala, coming under the purview of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Kerala.  The allotments are made to three streams, namely Engineering, Architecture and Medical.

Codes: Colleges, Type of College and Courses included in the Option Registration Process will be identified only through Codes at the location where options are to be registered. So candidates should get familiarized with the codes of Colleges, Type of College and Courses. The codes of Colleges and Courses are given in the Prospectus for Admission to Professional Degree Courses, 2012. The same is available at the right top corner of the link www.cee.kerala.gov.in/keam2012/main/index.php

Two links are available here. One is ‘Course List’ and the other is ‘College List’. On clicking the ‘Course List’ the branches in Engineering and the Courses in Medical stream are displayed with their related two letter Codes. On clicking the ‘College List’, the colleges included in the allotment process in Engineering, Architecture and Medical are displayed with the related three letter codes.

Before one proceeds to register options to be considered for allotment, it is necessary to understand the concept of ‘OPTION’.

What is an Option? An option is a combination of a course (like MBBS in the Medical stream or Electronics & Communication Branch in the case of Engineering stream), a College (say, Medical College, Trivandrum or College of Engineering, Trivandrum), of a particular type (Government/Aided or Government Supported Self-financing or Private Self- financing), a particular stream (like Engineering or Medical) and a particular fee. For example, the MBBS Course (Code MM) in Government Medical College, Trivandrum (Code TVM) which is a Government College (Code G) under the Medical Group (M), with a fee of Rs.25,000/- will be an option. An option entry will have the two-letter course code, three-letter college code and the fee applicable to this combination. In Government/University supported Colleges, as there are different fees for ‘Government Seat’ and ‘Management Seat’ the combination with each fee structure will be a different option, shown one below the other. By registering an option, the candidate is expressing his/her willingness to be considered for that particular option.

Available Options: The options available to a candidate for registration will be displayed in the ‘Home Page’ of the candidate, which is a personalized location allotted to each eligible candidate and which can be accessed via the notified website. The entry into a Home Page is restricted to candidates who are eligible to give options. A candidate eligible to give options to the Engineering stream alone will have in his/her ‘Home Page’, all the Engineering Options available to the candidate for registration.

A candidate eligible to register options for Engineering and Medical streams will have listed in his/her Home Page, all the options available for registration in the two groups. The list will be given Group wise (say Medical followed by Engineering) and in it, College Type wise (Government/Aided/KAU, Government Owned Self- financing, Self- financing) and therein, course-wise (say AE- Applied Electronics for Engineering).  A candidate eligible to register options in the Engineering, Medical and Architecture streams will have listed in his/her Home Page, all the options available for registration in the three groups and will be listed stream wise (Say Medical, then Engineering and then Architecture) and then College Type wise and subsequently course-wise.

Registration of Options: It is the process that involves the visiting of the designated website by the candidate, entering the Home Page by providing the relevant information in the site, registering of options available to be choosen from as per the priority of the candidate in the Group(s) applicable to the candidate, saving them, taking a print out (which is always desirable for future reference) and then logging out from the website. By registering an option, the candidate is expressing his/her willingness to be considered for that particular option.

Entering the Home Page of the candidate- The candidate has to first log-on to the website www.cee.kerala.gov.in/main.php from any computer having Internet facility. On logging on to the site, the candidate has to enter his/her Roll Number of the Entrance Examination. On entering the Roll No, the candidate will be taken to the next page where he/she has to enter the Number of the Application (seven digit), submitted to the CEE for Admission to Professional Degree Courses, 2012 which is also available in the Admit Card of the Candidate. The candidate has to then enter the 16 digit, alphanumeric ‘Key Number’ available in the Security Card received by the candidate from the Post Office, on payment of Application Fee. Remember that the Key Number is case sensitive and hence must be typed as given in the Security Card.

Finally the candidate has to create a password which should have at least 8 characters including an alphabet, a digit and one among the special characters given there. Password when entered for the first time, ahs to be confirmed by entering it again.

Password is a secret code which the candidate will have to create in order to enter the Home Page of the candidate. Since this is a code created by the candidate, it ensured that the Home Page will be accessed only by the genuine candidate. It is mandatory to give a password for logging on to the Home Page of the candidate. The candidate may initially note down the password (if it is difficult to remember it), used by him/her as it will be required whenever, the candidate wants to log on to his/her Home Page. Once the candidate is in a position to remember the pass word, the slip where it was noted may be torn off so that no one else sees the password. Candidate must remember the password given.

If by any chance the candidate forgets the password, he/she will have to contact the Office of the CEE or one of the centres identified and Notified by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, to get things set right. If the information given by the candidate is correct, he/she will be taken to his/her Home Page where several links will be available. They include Candidate’s Option Entry, Option Entry Example, Detailed Option Work Sheet, View Previous Options, View  Login Details, Change Password, Option Work Sheet, Print Option Report, View deleted options and  MBBS/BDS Eligibility. On clicking a link, the details related to that will be displayed.

Option Registration: The link ‘Candidate’s Option Entry’ leads to the location where all the available options of the candidate will be displayed. Entries will depend on the group(s) applicable to the candidate. The options available for registration will be displayed in this page course/branch wise one below the other. Each option will show the Course Code, the College Code, the fee applicable, refundable deposit applicable. 

It is in this Page that the candidate has to register options as per his/her priority. It may be seen that against each option, a blank box appears on the right side. This is the box where the candidate has to indicate his/her priority for the concerned option, using a number. The candidate has to decide the course-college combinations he/she wishes to register options and also fix a priority for them starting from the first to the last using numbers from 1 to the last as applicable.

Get familiarized: If needed, candidate can make use of the facilities like ‘Option Entry Example’, ‘Option Work Sheet’ and ‘Detailed Option Work Sheet’ to get an idea as to how the options are to be registered and also fix the priorities before proceeding with the actual registration.

On Clicking the link, ‘Option Entry Example’ the candidate will be able to see the manner in which the option priority number is to be assigned to the options intended to be registered.

On clicking ‘Option Worksheet’, the candidate will be taken to a page where the list of options based on Group, Type, Course, College and a blank space to enter Option No against these shown. Candidate can take a printout of this and list the options he/she wishes to register based on priority fixed by him/her. This is only for practice and is not the location where the actual registration of options is to be done.

The link ‘Detailed Option Work Sheet’ will lead the candidate to a page similar to the page that was seen when the ‘Option Work Sheet’ link was clicked with the course and College descriptions will also be given in addition to what was seen when Option Worksheet was clicked. Printout of this sheet can also be taken and options entered in them to prepare for the actual registration.

‘Option Worksheet’ and ‘Detailed Option Worksheet’ are not to be sent to the Office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.

The actual registration of options is to be done by clicking the link ‘Candidate’s Option Entry’. When this link is clicked, the candidate will be taken to his/her ‘Home Page’ where all the available options of the candidate will be displayed.

How many Options can be registered? A candidate is free to register as many options from among those available. If there are 100 options available to a candidate he/she may register all the 100 options assigning the numbers continuously from 1,2,…, 100 to the available options as per his/her priority. If he/she desires to register only 50 of the available options, he/she may do so by using numbers from 1 to 50 continuously against the options as per his/her priority. While registering options, the candidate should remember that the candidate will be considered only for the options registered and also that a candidate is bound to accept an allotment given based on a registered option.

The candidate cannot continue in the allotment process declining an allotted option. If he/she does not accept an allotted option, he/she will lose that allotment and also all claims in all streams (See Clause 11.6.2 of the Prospectus). So candidates should register only those options that the candidate is certain to accept in case of an allotment. Candidates having low ranks should register more options so as to keep live, their chance for allotment. 

How to register the Options? Registering of an Option by a candidate is the willingness expressed by a candidate included in the rank list to be considered for allotment to a particular course in a particular college, against a particular fee. List of Options of a candidate shows the list of Course-College combinations in the order of priority, registered by the candidate for consideration. If a candidate is included only in the Engineering Rank list, all the Course-College combinations to which the candidate is eligible to exercise options will be displayed in the Home Page in terms of the course code (2 Letter) and College Code (3 letter). (The expansions for all codes are available in the Home Page of the candidate). This will be branch-wise. ie., all colleges having a particular branch (Say Electronics and Communication Engineering or EC) will be listed together.

By the time the candidate enters the site to register options, it is expected that the candidate has fixed a priority for courses and colleges. Based on the priority fixed, the candidate will have to enter the numbers starting from 1 and continuing with 2, 3 etc. against the options which are the first, second, third etc priority of the candidate.

For example, if the top priority of the candidate is for the EC course at TVE (College of Engineering Trivandrum), the candidate should give the number 1 in the blank box against the combination EC - TVE and so on. The candidate has to just enter his/her priority number in the blank box against the option under consideration to register that option. The process can be continued till all desired options have been registered. The candidate must save the registered options by clicking the ‘Save’ button available on the right side of the page. This may be done frequently so that the entered data is not lost on any account.

Selected Options: An option that has been registered and saved, will move down from the original position and will transform into a list, one option below the other, in the order of priority, at the bottom of the Home Page which will be the ‘Selected Options’. So the list of all the options registered will appear at the bottom of the Home Page which may be verified by the candidate to ensure that what he/she desired has been registered.    

Option for multiple streams: If a candidate is included in different Rank Lists, all the options available in those streams will be displayed Group wise (Say Medical first, followed by Engineering). Here the candidate will have to give relative priority to the options, starting from 1, by considering all the options in the different groups together. The candidate should not assign separate priority starting from 1 for each group. The priority numbers have to be given continuously starting from 1 as per the relative priority fixed by considering all the options in all groups.

Printout of the Options registered: The candidate should take a printout of the Option list by clicking on the ‘Print Option Report’ link available in the Home Page and ensure that the priority numbers have been entered as desired.

Changing Password: A candidate has the freedom to change his/her password as and when needed by clicking the link ‘Change Password’

Logging off from the Website: After completing the formalities related to registration of options, the candidate must click on the ‘Log Out’ button and log off from the website.

Changing Options: A candidate can change the options or alter the priority of the options registered or include/delete options any number of times, before the time announced for closing of registration of options. To delete a registered option, the candidate may log on to the Home Page and enter the number ‘0’ against it and click ‘Update’ button on the page. To alter the priority of any options registered give the new number (and change the others accordingly). Always update the data and save the data. The candidate should take a printout whenever a change is made and satisfy himself/herself that the desired change has been effected.

The options registered in the Home Page of the candidate as at the closing time for registration of options will alone be considered for allotments. Whenever a candidate attempts to enter the Home Page, all details including Password will have to be given. This should be done carefully.

Keep the data confidential: The details of the candidate like Application Number, Roll Number., Key number and the Pass word should not be disclosed to anyone as it may be misused.

Allotment only as per Rank: Irrespective of the time of registration of options during the permitted period, the allotments will be made only as per the ranks of the candidates. 

Trial Allotment: Trial allotment is conducted to enable the candidates to understand their chances of allotment based on the options registered up to a specified time point. This year, the Trial Allotment is being held on 2nd July, 2012. Based on this, the students will get a chance to revise the priorities of their options, add new options, delete one or more options not interested in etc. There is no guarantee that the results of trial allotment will come as such in the actual allotment. Those getting a trial allotment need not get an actual allotment. The time schedule and other details of trial allotment will be announced by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.

Remittance of Fee/Amount: Candidates getting an allotment will be required to remit the Fee/Amount applicable (As the case may be) at a notified branch of SBT, in the Account of the Commissioner for Entrance Examination, within a stipulated time and thereby accept the allotment. This will be shown in the allotment memo that can be downloaded from the website. Since the remittance of fee is a requisite for acceptance of the allotment.

If any candidate, who has got an allotment, does not remit the fee within the stipulated time, the candidate will lose the allotments and will not be able to continue in the admission process in any stream.

Admission in Colleges: Candidates who get allotment and remit the required fee will have to join the allotted colleges as per the time schedule to be announced by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations. If the candidate does not join the college on the stipulated date, the candidate will lose the allotments and his/her claims to continue in the allotment process/

Higher Options: The options left in the ‘Home Page’ of the candidates after the first allotment will be the Higher Options of the candidates for the second allotment. Those left after the second allotment will be the higher options for the third allotment and so on. So the options left in the ‘Home Page’ of the candidate after each allotment will be the higher options for the next round of allotment.

If a candidate had registered 100 options in the first round allotment and has been allotted the 51st option, options at position 1 to 50 will be the higher options of that candidate. If a candidate who has registered 100 options has not received any allotment in the first round, then all the 100 options in the Home Page of the candidate will be the Higher Options of that candidate for the next allotment.

If a candidate who has registered 100 options has been allotted the first option itself, there will be no higher options left for that candidate for the next round of allotment.

The options from the one below the allotted one to the last one registered will be in the deleted list.

What can be done with Higher Options? There are different activities that the eligible candidates can carry out till the specified deadline with the Higher Options.

(i)Delete all the Higher Options: If a candidate who has received an allotment in the first round is fully satisfied with that allotment and does not wish to have any further movements, should cancel all the higher options in the Home Page. For this the candidate has to delete the priority number given against all the options, enter the number ‘0’ (Zero) in all the boxes and click the ‘UPDATE’ button to the right. 
(ii)Delete some of the Higher Options: Candidate, who has received an allotment in the first round or has not received any allotment in the first round, if interested in canceling some of the options in the Higher Options list, can do that. For this the candidate has to delete the priority number given against the options to be deleted, enter the number ‘0’ (Zero) in the box to the right of the options to be deleted and click the ‘UPDATE’ button to the right. 
(iii)Rearrange the Higher Options: A candidate can change the priority of the Higher Options left. For this the candidate has to delete the existing priority number given against the option whose priority is to be changed, enter the new priority number in the box to the right of that option and click the ‘UPDATE’ button to the right. 
(iv)Insert/Add New options to the Higher Options list: In the Medical and Engineering stream, there are a few new options included in the second round that were not there in the first round. A candidate interested in these options (some/all) can add them to the existing higher options list at the appropriate position ( it can be inserted/added at any point from 1 to the last available higher option) by entering the priority number for that option and clicking the ‘SAVE’ button to the right. Ensure that the existing priority numbers have changed as desired. A candidate who does not have any higher options left can also register these options.

Other conditions of allotment: Candidate who has an allotment in the first round, paid the fees, retains higher options but does not become eligible for a re-allotment in the second round, will retain the allotment received in the first round. 

Candidate, who has an allotment in the first round, paid fees and gets a re-allotment in the second round based on the Higher Options retained for the second round, will not be able to continue with the first allotment but will have to accept the re-allotment given in the second round. These rules are applicable to subsequent rounds also.

Options available for registration in the first round will not be available for registration again in the subsequent rounds. The options registered in the first round will alone be considered for subsequent rounds. However, if options for courses and colleges that were not available in the first round are included in the subsequent rounds, candidates in the rank list will have the facility to add them to their option list by placing them at the appropriate position in the higher options list.

Watch the Official Notifications: The details given in this note are as per the provisions existing and being followed and may be taken only for guidance. The official Notifications are to be relied upon by the candidates in all activities related to the allotment. They are expected to be published in the media and also in the official websites of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations and also in the site identified for options registration. Website: www.cee-kerala.org and www.cee.kerala.gov.in/main.php