IIT-JEE, UPSC, GATE listed among toughest exams of world: Report

China's Gaokao exam has been rated to be the toughest in the world, which is a nine hour long exam. England's Mensa exam is placed at the fourth spot, followed by the GRE exam.

By: Education Desk , Edited by Deeksha Teri

New Delhi | Updated: January 17, 2023 07:13 PM IST

3 min read

The Ministry of Education (MoE) on late Wednesday night announced that the exam had been cancelled. (Representational image)

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IIT JEE, UPSC Civil Services and GATE have featured in the list of the toughest exams in the world. The list has been compiled by Erudera — an online education search platform. IIT JEE exam has been ranked the toughest in India and second toughest in the world in the list. The platform has assessed that the acceptance rates in IITs are at about 1 per cent, which makes it the second toughest exam in the world.

“With increased competition, the exam’s difficulty is also increasing yearly. Over 1.2 million candidates appear every year, for around 11,000 seats in 23 different IITs,” the report stated. To prepare for this entrance exam, continuous efforts through two long years are needed on average. The exam has nearly 32,000 monthly internet searches.

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After the IIT JEE exam, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) civil service exams has been placed at the third spot in this list; making it the second toughest exam of India. The average preparation time for the UPSC exam is at least one year. According to the list, around 500,000 students take the prelims for less than 1,000 seats. The success rate ranges from 0.1 to 0.4 per cent. Passing the second stage means you get to interview with a panel that will assess your personality, awareness, and reasoning. UPSC has around 67,000 monthly searches.

The third toughest exam of India is Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), which has been ranked at the 8th spot. The average preparation time for the GATE exam is six months. According to the report, nearly 8 lakh to 1 million candidates apply for the exam, but an average of 16 to 18 per cent of them qualify for the test.

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China’s Gaokao exam has been rated to be the toughest in the world, which is a nine hour long exam. Nearly 12 million candidates appear for the exam on a yearly basis. England’s Mensa exam is placed at the fourth spot, followed by the GRE exam.

Other exams that have featured in the list are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE), United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and the California bar exam.

The online platform has assessed competitive exams around the world on the basis of the preparation time required for the entrance exam, the pass rate (in percentage)/ score and the number of candidates (yearly).

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