9am to 3pm in a college classroom, staring at theorems on the blackboard. 5pm to 8pm in a tutorial breaking his head over some complex problem combining mechanical and electrical concepts. The rest of the time stuck in a traffic jam commuting between home, college and coaching centre. If this is the fate of 18-year-olds appearing for entrance tests, coaching centres have now figured out a solution __ the two-in-one magic.

The fine line between coaching and pre-university (PU) classes is fading away. Integrated coaching classes are slowly becoming the order of the day. As in Andhra Pradesh where even the government-run model schools offer an integrated programme, Bangalore is slowly turning to that path.

With this, colleges teach PU and CET syllabi simultaneously in an integrated fashion, as in Deeksha Centre for Learning on Kanakapura Road. Here, the first class is on theoretical and conceptual ideas, followed by numerical problems taught through PU and CBSE books. This is followed by entrancecoaching when IIT/AIEEE/CET books are used. The student manual provides problem solving techniques. On completion of a chapter, there are two tests a PU test on Friday and an IIT test on Monday. Everything between 8am and 4pm.

In addition, coaching centres have tied up with colleges where they conduct classes. The colleges provide the infrastructure, which spares the students of long travel. "Based on parents' requests, we started this facility. With this, students save a lot of time and effort,'' said Mansoor Ali Khan, member, board of trustees of Delhi Public School.

Coaching centres have come a long way from the time they first made their presence felt in the city. "Initially, when I started a centre here 12 years ago, it was for two hours, four days a week. As competition increased so did the number of classes. Yet, Bangalore has not reached a stage like Kota or Andhra Pradesh. The students here are still not ready to work that hard," said G Sridhar, managing director, Ace Creative Learning.

With time, CET has also undergone changes. "Now, 10% of questions require high order thinking. More I PU questions are being added. When CET started, there were hardly any coaching classes. There were classes conducted by organisations like Rotaract and Lions Club. The professional groups entered later, only in the major cities," said H N Subrahmanya, an educational consultant and faculty of BASE coaching centre.

The popularity has soared so much that the government has taken up coaching in rural areas. This time there was an outreach programme telecast through Doordarshan's Chandana Channel. "The live phone-in programmes have been received well. We have been receiving around 50 calls per episode," said Reshmi V, commissioner, department of PU education.

As classes become more professional with IIT passouts themselves conducting them in some cases, the fees for the courses have also shot up. IIT-JEE coaching can cost you a half a lakh per year in some of the prominent institutions. For plain CET coaching, the cost can range from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per subject to Rs 6,500 for including PU coaching.