Mumbai: Nearly 10 lakh students across the country are geared up for the "All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE)" to be held on Sunday, April 26.

Admissions in B.E /B.Tech and B. Arch /B. Planning in various national-level institutes like the National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, Deemed Universities and Government-Funded Institutions, etc can be obtained from AIEEE scores.

The examination will be held in 1,460 centres.

Mumbai itself has seen a tremendous increase in the number of students from 26,896 in 2008 to over 29,000 candidates this year. They will appear for exams across 37 centres.

"CBSE students will find AIEEE much easier as it is entirely based on their syllabus," said Avnita Bir, Principal of R.N. Podar School.

Alertness and speed are the most important aspects according to students.

"Since I had prepared well for IIT-JEE, I just had to brush up those chapters that were not a part of JEE. What matters the most is speed, which I have tried to improve by solving papers. Since I am more confident about physics and chemistry, I will first attempt them and then solve Maths," said an aspirant.

However, several candidates have opted for a "no-strategy" approach. "This year's JEE had a lot of surprises in the examination that's why I have decided not to plan any strategy for AIEEE. I would simply give my best shot and will be prepared for it."

"As there were some changes in the pattern in 2008 exams, students should be open for the same surprises this year as well," said Mr. Srinivas, Director of T.I.M.E., Mumbai.

"Compared to JEE, AIEEE's is quite easy. However, you need to score at least 60% to get admission into a decent institute. So the number of questions one attempts must surely go up," he added.

"A difference of just 15-20 marks can create a huge gap in ranks. Competition is high from the context of number of students taking it, so correct question selection is crucial," said Debadatta Das, Academic Head of Career Launcher, Thane.