Day one of JEE Mains exams passed off peacefully on Tuesday amid strict restrictions and special Covid-19 precautionary measures taken at all the centres across five cities in the State – Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Hazaribag.
Loudspeakers were installed at an examination centre in Tupudana here to remind students about maintaining social distancing. Besides, circles were also marked at the entry to ensure that students do not come close to each other.
The examinees were also provided triple layer masks at the centres and asked to remove the masks that they were wearing when they left home. The body temperature of all the examinees was checked using a thermal scanner. A separate isolation room was also set up for those students who showed symptoms of Covid-19 infection, the examinees said.Despite all the precautionary measures, as many as 190 students missed the first sitting of the exam at the Tupudana centre. “Around 190 of the 410 students were absent during the first sitting of the exam at Tupudana centre,” said the city coordinator of JEE Main, Ram Singh.
Singh, however, said that many students, who are satisfied with their performance in the first round of JEE Mains, do not appear for the second round, which is why the 190 students may have missed the exam on Tuesday.Students at the Tupudana centre in Ranchi were mostly satisfied with the papers. However, some of them said that the mathematics paper was difficult. “I was very nervous initially, but everything went smoothly after the exams began,” said Puja Mahto, an examinee from Gumla, who travelled to Ranchi by a private car on Tuesday to appear for the exam.
Around 23,000 students are supposed to appear for the JEE Mains exams at eight centres spread across five cities in Jharkhand till September 6.