mumbai last year when the largest indian entrance exam for aspiring engineers opened up to technology there were precisely 4900 candidates who opted for it the remaining 1113 lakh took the all india engineering entrance exam aieee in the old paperpencil modebut the tepid response has done little to force the exam organizer to rethink its plans the central board for secondary education which conducts the aieee has now put out a note stating that the 11th edition of the entrance testto be held in april 2012 will be held in the online mode on a mass scale the notification states students are advised to acquaint themselves with new technologycbse chairman vineet joshi clarified that like last year the exam would be offered in the paperpencil format too but there were certain changes that the board was working on a committee is drawing up plans on how to make the computerbased format of the test more popular among candidates when the next edition of the exam rolls out to offer the exam on computers in certain large cities where the student population is comfortable with technology is one suggestion said joshilast year when the cbse had put in place infrastructure for 1 lakh students to take the computerbased test less than 05 signed up for the online entrance testwhile the board felt the computerbased test was the way forward to handle the ballooning aspirants the number of those who have opted for the new computerbased format was a wakeup call for the board we realized it was going to take longer than we thought before we can offer the exam just on computers hence we are reworking our strategy said a senior cbse officialbut officials clarified that with the aieee having a large contingent of candidates from rural india it would take the cbse at least a decade before the entrance exam could be held completely on computersthe cbse which conducts the aieee has put out a note stating that the next edition of the test will be held in the online mode on a mass scale