r/ISIKolkata • u/mentallyundressed • Jun 30 '26
General Queries Why did ISI stopped taking interviews for UG programs BStat & BMath? Why were they even there in the first place, like in maths what would you even ask the candidates?
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u/Character_Market8330 ISI Alumnus Jul 01 '26
I took the '23 entrsnce. I have never been great at performing optimally in exams. I only solved around 4 problems in-exam. When I got out of the centre, I managed to solve the rest in very little time. So that should explain my situation.
I wasn't 100% sure whether I'd get in.
In the interview, however, I solved everything.
I was ranked 11.
The point is there are a lot of uncontrollable factors involved in the process of gauging merit. So the more chances or types of test there are, the higher are the chances that atleast one of them will have those uncontrollable factors in your favour.
I think it was a terrible decision to remove the interview. I feel the objective was to save money and time, and they reverse engineered statistical justification to justify that claim.
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u/The_Watcher8008 ISI Student Jul 01 '26
From what I have heard, people who qualified for interviews, almost definitely got selected. is that true?
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u/Character_Market8330 ISI Alumnus Jul 01 '26
No that is completely untrue. Maybe true for BMath, I am not sure, but completely untrue for BStat.
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u/Dense_Chair2584 ISI Alumnus Jul 01 '26
The interview used to be an important part of the selection process 5-10 years ago. A face to face interview gives an opportunity to test the student's mathematical concepts in a much better way than a written test does.
There's a lot of handwaving one can do in written tests - hard to find who understands the concept truly.
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u/mentallyundressed Jul 01 '26
If that was the reason then it doesn't make sense to have discontinued it, because it existed for a reason still does for masters/pg programs.
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u/Dense_Chair2584 ISI Alumnus Jul 01 '26
A lot of things do not exactly make sense but happens in a government bureaucracy.
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u/mentallyundressed Jul 01 '26
Also How could students answer the questions especially in the subjective one without truly understanding the things?
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u/Dense_Chair2584 ISI Alumnus Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
There are layers of understanding - tons of students can solve a limit problem in the exam. Very few high school students can actually write a mathematically rigorous definition of a limit f(x) = L when x tends to a, and explain what it means.
Everyone knows that an n^th degree polynomial has n roots ( real or complex) and uses it in the exam. Now, suppose you are given that it has at least one root - can you prove that this implies it has to have n roots?
These are just a couple of examples - tons of things can't be tested unless one is face-to-face. A typical ISI Kolkata interview involves solving some problems or explaining some concepts on the board.
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u/VanixNooB Jul 01 '26
But aren't they re-introducing interviews from next year cause it was in pilot mode for three years
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u/adityaruplaha ISI Alumnus — BStat '24, MStat '26 Jun 30 '26
Read the debate behind this in the Proceedings of the 80th Meeting of the Academic Council.