The Join Entrance Examination (JEE) has been envisioned as one entrance exam for all engineering institutes across India. Right now, it can lead to admission in IITs, NITs, IIITs, and other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) as well as engineering and technical institutes of the states participating in the JEE exam system. This article acts as How to Guide for all the students who are seeking admission to top Universities in India
Joint Entrance Exam (JEE): Biggest Entrance Exam Worldwide
JEE has two steps:
- JEE Main, and
- JEE Advanced
JEE Main
JEE Main is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to screen candidates for NITs, IIITs, and other CFTIs. JEE Main 2014 has replaced the state-level entrance exams for Gujarat, Mahrashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland and Odisha for admission to the institutions of these states.
JEE Main conducts two separate papers:
- Paper 1 for B.E. and B. Tech aspirants, and
- Paper 2 for B. Arch and B. Planning aspirants.
Students seeking admission in B. Arch courses at the IITs are advised to take Paper 1.
Paper 1 is conducted in both offline (pen and paper based) and online (computer based) mode while Paper 2 is conducted only in offline mode.
Paper 1 is also considered as an eligibility test for JEE Advanced – the next step of the JEE system.
In Paper 1, objective-type questions are asked with equal weightage to Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.
In Paper 2, there are three parts. Part 1 is Mathematics, Part 2 is Aptitude Test while Part 2 is Drawing Test. Part 1 and 2 have objective-type questions while Part 3 has questions to test drawing aptitude of the candidate.
Duration of the exam of both JEE Main Paper 1 and Paper 2 is three hours.
Syllabus for JEE Main
JEE Main syllabus is almost similar to the CBSE syllabus for Physics, Chemistry and Maths specified for Class XI and Class XII.
JEE Main Scoring Pattern
There is negative marking in the JEE Main exam. ¼ marks of the question are deducted from the total score of the exam. No marks are deducted for the questions that have not been attempted.
JEE Main Examination Fees
For exam centres in India
- For offline Paper 1 or Paper 2 exam: Rs 1,000/- for General Category male students, and Rs 500/- for all other students.
- For online Paper 1 or Paper 2 exam: Rs 600/- for General Category male students, and Rs 300/- for all other students.
- For both the exams in pen and paper based mode: Rs 1,800/- for General Category male students, and Rs 900/- for all other students.
- For both the exams in computer based mode: Rs 1,400/- for General Category male students, and Rs 700/- for all other students.
For exam centres abroad
- For Paper 1 or Paper 2 exam: Rs 2,500/- for General Category male students, and Rs 1,250/- for all other students.
- For both the exams: Rs 3,800/- for General Category male students, and Rs 1,900/- for all other students.
How to apply for JEE Main exam?
JEE Main application form is only available online. One student can fill up only one application form. Payment can be done through either credit or debit card online or through e-challan ICICI bank, Syndicate bank or Canara bank. E-challan is generated after filling up the online application form for JEE Main.
Once you submit the application form, you are allowed to modify some of the details online till the specified date. After that, you will not be allowed to make any changes.
Make sure you print out the confirmation page after application form submission and keep it safe for future reference.
It is the responsibility of the students to make sure that they are eligible for the exam and that they are able to present their board results by June 25, 2014.
Eligibility Criteria for JEE Main exam
- Date of Birth: Candidates should not be more than 25 years old on October 1 of the year of exam. For SC, ST and PwD candidates, there is a relaxation of 5 years in the upper age limit.
- Year of Appearance in Qualifying Exam (QE): Students can only attempt JEE Main for a maximum of three times. Students taking the exam must have passed their Class 12th board exams in the year of exam or up to two years prior to the exam year.
- Subjects in QE: Students should have at least five subjects in Class 12th board exam, including English, Physics, Chemistry and Maths.
JEE Main Result
Before the declaration of results, students will be able to check JEE Main answer key and the copy of their OMR sheet online. In case they see any discrepancy, they can challenge their marks by paying Rs 1,000/- per question by the specified date.
You can use free askIITians JEE Main Rank Predictor after calculating you JEE Main scores and see what rank you can expect in the exam.
On the result day, students’ actual marks in Paper 1 will be declared along with the status of whether they qualify for JEE Advanced or not.
JEE Main rank lists will be declared after the JEE Advanced exam has been conducted. They will be drawn on the basis of scores of candidates (with 40% weightage to normalised Class 12 board marks and 60% weightage to JEE Main score). The JEE Main Rank Card will have All India Rank, Category Rank, State Rank, Total Marks and Marks in each paper for a candidate.
JEE Main Counselling
Centralised counselling procedure only considers All India Rank (AIR) of a student for admission to NITs, IITs, CFTIs and SFIs. Students indicate their choices online during web counselling period and then, seats are offered to them on the basis of their preferences and their AIRs.
There are institutes that accept JEE Main scores but do not participate in the centralized JEE Main counselling process.
JEE Advanced
JEE Advanced is conducted by the JEE Apex Board (JAB) to screen candidates for all the IITs and ISM Dhanbad only.
JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria
Only Top 1,20,000 rank holders in various JEE Main rank lists are eligible for the exam – only if they fall within the Top 20 percentile of their respective boards in the QE. The candidates will be distributed across the rank lists according to the following specifications:
- Top 75,750 (50.5%) from the Common Merit List (CML)
- Top 40,500 (27%) from Other Backward Classes-Non creamy layer OBC(NCL) Merit List
- Top 22,500 (15%) from Scheduled Caste(SC) Merit List
- Top 11,250 (7.5%) from Scheduled Tribe(ST) Merit List
3% of total category seats are reserved for PwD candidates (i.e. 2,272 for GE-PwD; 1,215 for OBC (NCL) – PwD; 675 for SC-PwD and 338 for ST-PwD).
One can only attempt JEE Advanced 2014. So, one can appear for it only if they appeared for Class XII board in the year of examination or the year prior to it.
One does not have to apply separately for the JEE Advanced exam but eligible candidates do have to register online for the exam by the specified date.
JEE Advanced Exam Pattern
JEE Advanced has two papers – Paper 1 and Paper 2, which are available in English and Hindi. One can indicate the choice of language in the question paper during online registration for JEE Advanced.
Each paper will have duration of three hours and will have three sections – Physics, Chemistry and Maths.
Type of questions will be objective-type and multiple-choice questions that will test the comprehension, logic, reasoning ability and analytical skills of candidates.
Syllabus for JEE Advanced
JEE Advanced syllabus is slightly different from the JEE Main syllabus. However, it has remained unchanged for more than a decade now.
JEE Advanced Scoring Pattern
There is negative marking in some sections of the JEE Advanced exam. No marks are deducted for the questions that have not been attempted.
What information you need to provide during JEE Advanced registration?
When you register for the exam, you will have to fill in:
- Choice of exam city
- Choice of language of question paper
- Year of first attempt in JEE Advanced
- Whether you are entitled for DS category reservation?
- Whether you need a scribe?
- Upload passport size photo in JPEG format, legible scanned signature and soft copies of certificates like DOB certificate, Class X certificate and certificates to indicate your category and sub-category (if you fall under reserved categories).
JEE Advanced Examination Fees
For exam centres in India
- For General Category and OBC male candidates: Rs 2,000/-
- For SC, ST and PwD male candidates: Rs 1000/- For both the exams in pen and paper based mode: Rs 1,800/- for General Category male students, and Rs 900/- for all other students.
- No fees for female candidates.
For exam centres abroad
- For all candidates: US$ 220
JEE Advanced Admit Card
Once you register for the exam and pay the fees, candidates will be able to dowload their admit cards online on the specified date. If there are any discrepancies in the admit card, candidates are advised to contact the Chairman, JEE (Advanced) of their Zonal IIT by the specified date.
Print out of the admit card is absolutely necessary to enter the examination hall where invigilators will verify the identity of the candidates and give them the original admit card.
You should preserve the JEE Advanced admit card until the admission process is over.
JEE Advanced Result
Candidates will be able to match their ORS sheet copy with the JEE Advanced answer key by the specified date. Any errors in the marking of copy can be challenged by paying Rs 500/- per question to be reviewed by the specified date.
JEE Advanced ranking is done for only those students who appear for both Paper 1 and Paper 2. In each subject, the marks considered for ranking are the sum of marks in Paper 1 and marks in Paper 2 for that subject.
To be a part of a rank list, a candidate should have more than the specified cutoff marks for that category.
- JEE Advance cutoffs for Common Merit List is 10% in each subject and 35% in aggregate.
- For OBC (NCL) category, students should have at least 9% in each subject and 31.5% in aggregate.
- For SC and ST categories, students should have at least 5% in each subject and 17.5% in aggregate.
- For PwD category, students should have at least 5% in each subject and 17.5% in aggregate.
Once the JEE Advanced results are declared, students will be able to download their rank cards online which will have their JEE Advanced AIRs and Category Ranks.
JEE Advanced Counseling
The IIT JEE counselling procedure has three steps:
- Online Choice Filling
- Seat Allocation and
- Institute-level Admission Procedure
In online choice filling, students who successfully crack JEE Advanced exam have to indicate their preference for participating institutes and the courses they offer.
Certificates are verified and seat allotment is done strictly on the basis of choice of students, number of seats in a course, and the AIR and category rank of applicants.
Students have to accept seats and then, contact the institute directly to complete the admission process.
As students accept or withdraw from seats, several rounds of counseling take place to make sure that no seats remain empty.
A student who accepts the seat once (and do not withdraw it in specified time) is not allowed to sit for IIT JEE again.
Fill out the Student Query Form if you wish to query any information related to JEE Examination
About Author: Rakesh singh is Product Development Manager at askIITians.com, India’s leading online education company. He is an MBA post-graduate from IIM Kozhikode and a B.Tech graduate from IIT Delhi.