JEE-Main Joint Entrance Exam Main

JEE Main is conducted by the National Testing Agency and is the qualifying route to the NITs, the IIITs and the centrally funded technical institutes — and the only route to JEE Advanced.

• Qualifying exam: class 12 or an equivalent, with Physics and Mathematics compulsory, plus one of Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology or a technical vocational subject.
• Year of passing: candidates who passed in either of the two preceding years, or who appear in the current year, may sit it.
• Attempts: three consecutive years. Both sessions in a year together count as one.
• Age: there is no age limit for the exam itself. Institutes may apply their own.
• For admission, not for the exam: the NITs, IIITs and CFTIs require at least 75% in class 12, or a place in the top 20 percentile of your board. The bar is 65% for SC and ST candidates. This does not stop you sitting JEE Main; it stops you taking the seat.

The application is an online form on the NTA’s JEE Main website. Everything below is done in one sitting or saved and returned to; nothing is done on paper.

Apply only through the official portal. No agent can register you, and nobody can change a score once it is declared.

JEE Main runs in two sessions a year, and this is the most misunderstood part of it.

• Both sessions count as one attempt. A candidate may sit either or both, and the better of the two NTA scores is the one that stands. Sitting the first session badly costs nothing but the fee.
• Scores are normalised across shifts, so a harder shift is not a penalty. This is why a raw mark and a percentile do not move together.
• Marking is four for a correct answer and one off for a wrong one in the multiple-choice section. The numerical-value section is answered by typing a number.
• Paper 1 is for B.E. and B.Tech; Paper 2A for B.Arch and 2B for B.Planning, each with its own extra sections.
• Roughly the top two and a half lakh across categories qualify to sit JEE Advanced. Seats at the NITs and IIITs are then allotted through JoSAA counselling on the JEE Main rank.

JEE Main is a speed exam built on the NCERT syllabus. It does not ask harder questions than the textbook; it asks more of them, faster.

• NCERT first, for Chemistry especially. Inorganic chemistry in particular stays close to the textbook, and it is the cheapest section to secure.
• Accuracy over attempts. With a mark deducted for a wrong answer, a candidate attempting 70 questions at 90% accuracy scores better than one attempting 85 at 70%.
• Check the marking on the numerical section in the current notification. Where it carries no negative marking, nothing there should be left blank.
• Sit the first session even if you feel unready. It is a free diagnostic, the better score is the one that counts, and the exam hall is a different place from a mock at home.