– Pranav Kothari, CEO, Educational Initiatives

Walk into any Class 11 classroom in October, and you’ll find students already anxious about board exams still a year and a half away. By Class 12, that anxiety turns to stress as they juggle boards, entrance exams, and college applications — all within a few chaotic months.

Counselors, meanwhile, face an impossible challenge: guiding each student toward the right university while sifting through applications that look nearly identical— 90 percent plus board exam scores, generic extracurriculars, and polished essays. The system is stretched to a breaking point.

The Quiet Revolution in Admissions

India’s most forward-looking universities are asking a radical question: Are board marks the best predictor of university success?

Faculty increasingly say no. Students entering with stellar board results often lack the analytical and communication skills higher education demands. As one admissions head put it:

“We’ve admitted students with 95 percent marks who can’t construct a coherent argument, while those with 85 percent often demonstrate far deeper understanding.”

Universities are realising that success depends less on recall and more on reasoning, curiosity, and clarity of thought.

Skills That Actually Matter

Educational Initiatives’ two decades of research reveal that students who excel in university share five key cognitive skill domains rarely measured by board exams:

1. Quantitative Reasoning – grasping concepts, recognizing patterns, and applying logic to new problems.
2. Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning – analyzing information, drawing valid conclusions, and spotting weak arguments.
3. Verbal & Written Communication – reading complex texts, writing persuasively, and using evidence effectively.
4. Computational Thinking – breaking down problems systematically and applying algorithmic logic.
5. Conceptual Understanding – connecting ideas across disciplines and transferring learning to new contexts.

These are the skills universities increasingly prize—and that students need to thrive in a complex, interdisciplinary world.

The Rise of Early Assessments

To bridge the gap, universities are introducing skills-based early assessment pathways that let students demonstrate readiness before board exams. The model is simple:

• Class 11 (Oct–Dec): Students take a diagnostic readiness test.
• Class 11 (Jan–Feb): They receive detailed skill reports and improvement plans.
• Class 12: Preparation focuses on strengthening real skill gaps.
• April onwards: Universities use these results for early consideration or conditional offers.

This approach reduces stress, creates actionable insights, and helps universities identify truly capable students—not just high scorers.

The Ei CREST Initiative

At Educational Initiatives (Ei), we’ve spent 24 years understanding how students think and learn—through 15 million+ ASSET assessments and 2 million+ daily adaptive questions on Mindspark. Building on this foundation, we’ve developed Ei CREST (College Readiness & Entrance Skills Test)—a next-generation assessment for Class 11–12 students.

CREST focuses on:

• Skills, not syllabus: Measuring reasoning and thinking, not rote memorization.
• Detailed analytics: Providing insight into each student’s strengths and areas for growth.
• University partnerships: Several institutions are recognizing CREST scores for early admissions.

Schools can now nominate their Class 11 students for the December 2025 CREST cycle—helping them gain diagnostic clarity and a competitive edge months before the board rush.

What Schools Can Do Now

For Academic Leaders:

• Audit Class 11–12 curricula—are students thinking or merely reproducing?
• Integrate weekly reasoning, data, and problem-solving activities.
• Reframe “college prep” to include skill building, not just exam prep.

For Counselors:

• Map universities offering early assessment pathways.
• Build student skill portfolios showcasing analytical and communication growth.
• Use assessment data for genuine improvement—not just admissions strategy.

The Road Ahead

The admissions landscape is changing fast. Universities are moving beyond board marks toward evidence of real thinking. The question for schools is simple: Will you lead this shift—or be left reacting to it?

By helping students build and demonstrate authentic skills early, schools can lower stress, improve readiness, and open doors to a new kind of meritocracy—one defined not by memory, but by mindset.

Also read: Borders Without Barriers: Global universities shaping India’s higher education