Information About Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)

JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) is a common entrance exam conducted at all India level to facilitate students for
getting admissions into different engineering colleges in India. JEE ranks among the toughest exams in the
world. Around 12,00,000 students appear for this test every year to get admissions into NITs, IITs, IIITs and
other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTI). The courses offered by these institutes are B.Tech/B.E,
B.Arch, Integrated MSc’s, etc.
Joint Entrance Exam(JEE) is constituted by two different examinations – JEE Main and JEE Advanced.
JEE Mains eligibility criteria mentioned below have to be fulfilled by each candidate. The JEE Mains exam also
forms an eligibility test for the JEE Advanced exam. The top 2,24,000 candidates who will qualify the JEE Mains
will be allowed to appear for the JEE Advanced exam.
From 2019, JEE Main is conducted two times in a year and it will be conducted by National Testing Agency
(NTA)

JEE MAINS Eligibility Criteria

Criterion 1- Age Criteria:

(a) All candidates (General and OBC) can be, at most 25 years of age on October 1st, in the year of taking
admission to be eligible to apply for JEE Mains.
(b) For SC, ST and PwD candidates, he/she can be, at most 30 years of age on October 1st, in the year of taking
admission to be eligible to apply for JEE Mains.

Criterion 2- Registration using Aadhaar Card:

A new criteria has been introduced by the CBSE from JEE Mains 2017, whereby the applicant must have a valid
registered Aadhaar Card number for being eligible for JEE Mains.

Criterion 3- Attempts allowed:

An aspirant can avail a maximum of 3 attempts* for JEE-Main (in consecutive years) and 2 attempts for
JEE-Advanced (in consecutive years). The first attempt is taken in the year of appearing in class 12th board
exams followed by the other attempts in consecutive years.
*[Considering that now JEE-Main is conducted two times in a year, an aspirant can appear overall 6 times in
JEE-Main exam (2 times in a year for 3 consecutive years). However candidates are not required to
compulsorily take the test twice (in a year) and if a candidate appears in both the tests, only the better of the two
scores will be considered.]

Criterion 4- Minimum marks required for IIT JEE Mains:

(a) There are no minimum marks required for IIT JEE Mains in their class 12th board examination. However,
the appearing candidates have to secure at least the passing marks in their respective qualifying
examination.
(b) Eligibility Criteria for students belonging to the General Category for getting admissions
into different IITs, NITs, IIITs and other CFTIs: The Students must have secured a minimum of 75%
marks in their class 12th board exams or they must rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying
examination.
(c) Eligibility Criteria for students belonging to the Reserved Categories (SC, ST & Pwd) for
getting admissions into different IITs, NITs, IIITs and other CFTIs: A minimum of 65% marks
are required for getting admissions into different undergraduate courses offered at IITs, NITs, IIITs and
other CFTIs which are considering admissions on the basis of JEE Mains or JEE Advanced ranks.

Criterion 5- Subjects pursued in the Qualifying Examination:

(a) It is mandatory for all students appearing for JEE Mains that they must have pursued at least 5 subjects with
Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as their core subjects in their qualifying examinations.
(b) Students are not eligible for appearing in JEE Mains who have studied less than 5 subjects in their qualifying exam.

Criterion 6- Year of passing in the Qualifying Examination:

(a) Students appearing for their Class 12th examination or any other equivalent qualifying examination in the
year of giving JEE-Main, are eligible, provided their result should be declared before 15th of June, in the
same year.
(b) Students who have passed their Class 12th examination or any other equivalent qualifying examination in
the year before or year previous to before the year of giving JEE-Main are also eligible for appearing in JEEMain.

JEE Main Exam Pattern

(a) JEE-Main is held for two papers. Paper I will be held for B.E/ B.Tech aspirants, and Paper 2 for B. Arch./ B.
Planning. Candidates who wish to take admission in the NITs and CFTIs in courses like B.Arch and
B.Planning have to clear JEE-Main Paper II. The exam duration of both the papers is the same – 3 hours each.
While JEE-Main Paper I will have questions in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics for a total of 360
marks, JEE-Main Paper II will have questions in Mathematics, Aptitude Test, and Drawing for a total of 390
marks.
(b) The JEE-Main Paper I is held in 1 shift and is held only in online mode.
( c) The JEE-Main Paper II is held in 2 shifts. JEE-Main Paper II will have 3 parts. Part 1 and Part 2 will be in
online mode, whereas Part 3 will be in offline mode. Part 1 of JEE Main Paper II is Mathematics, Part 2 is
Aptitude Test and Part 3 is the drawing section which the candidates will attempt in drawing sheets.

JEE ADVANCED Eligibility Criteria

All the candidates must fulfil each and every one of the following five criteria to appear in JEE -Advanced.

CRITERION 1 – Performance in JEE-Main:

Candidates should be among the top 2,24,000* (including all
categories) in Paper-1 of JEE-Main.
The percentages of various categories of candidates to be shortlisted are: 27% for OBC-NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for
ST and the remaining 50.5% is OPEN for all. Within each of these four categories, 5% horizontal reservation is
available for PwD candidates.

CRITERION 2 – Age limit:

All candidates (General and OBC) can be, at most 25 years of age on October
1st, in the year of taking admission. Five years relaxation is given to SC, ST and PwD candidates.

CRITERION 3 – Number of attempts:

A candidate can attempt JEE -Advanced a maximum of two times in
consecutive years, with the first attempt taken in the year of appearing in class 12th board exams followed by
the second attempt in the next year.

CRITERION 4 – Appearance in Class XII (or equivalent) examination:

A candidate should have
appeared for the Class XII (or equivalent) examination for the first time either in the year of appearing in
JEE-Advanced or in the year before the year of appearing in JEE-Advanced.

CRITERION 5– Earlier admission at IITs:

A candidate should NOT have been admitted in an IIT
irrespective of whether or not he/she continued in the program OR accepted an IIT seat by reporting at a
reporting centre in the past. Candidates whose admission at IITs was cancelled after joining any IIT are also
NOT eligible to appear in JEE-Advanced.

JEE ADVANCED Exam Pattern

There are several changes made in the exam from 2018. The Joint Admission Board (JAB) decided to conduct the entire exam online from 2018 since it reduces chances of paper leak and makes logistics and evaluation easier. It said that the online exam will neutralise the problem of misprinting. The number of students appearing for the
JEE (Advanced) has been increased to 2,24,000, which was earlier 2,20,000.