Rl Trikha gives an analysis of this year’s JEE Main exam and predicts the cut-off
Around 10 lakh students appeared in the JEE Main 2017 exam on Sunday April 2, 2017 from over 2,000 centres in 109 cities in India and abroad. Aspirants had the choice of appearing in any one of the two types of papers or both. While Paper-I was for BE/BTech courses, Paper-II was for BArch/BPlanning. Paper-I and II were held offline mode as pen and paper-based. On April 8 and 9, 2017 the online computer- based test will be held.
The question paper-I for BE/BTech courses was similar to pattern in the past years 2011 to 2016. Paper had objective type questions multiple choices with one out of four correct with equal weightage to Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. There were 30 questions each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics with marking scheme four marks for right answer and for each in-correct response, one-fourth of the total marks allotted to the question would be deducted from the total score.
Paper was balanced and was set from CBSE syllabus of Classes XI and XII. However as expected, many of the questions are conceptual with some needing analytical skills. 25 questions are easy, 53 questions are of moderate difficulty and 12 questions are of relatively difficult. In D Set, question No. 34 and 54 of Physics were tough and need analytical ability beyond NCERT book.
In Chemistry, two out of three questions required deep conceptual understanding and application. In Mathematics, Set-D Q 28 was controversial and few questions were lengthy. However, serious students found paper relatively easy compared to last year.
A student who attempts paper with cool head, he can attempt complete paper. Overall, difficulty level for paper was between easy to moderate. For a student who has been focussed and serious all through the two years in improving speed and accuracy by taking regular quizzes and mock tests on JEE Mains pattern, must have done reasonably well. It is always relative performance which matters in such competitive examinations.
Cut-off for Common Merit list in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 was 113,115,105,100 respectively. Cut-off this year is going to be around 115.
Admission through centralised allocation process in National Institutes of Technology’s, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, Delhi Technological University or Centrally Funded Technical Institutes for over 24,000 seats in undergraduate courses will be according to merit list based on marks in JEE Main examination.
However, the candidate must be in top 20 percentile of respective board or should score minimum 75 per cent marks in his Board examination. A total of nine States (Haryana, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan) will also accept JEE Mains ranks to fill seats through their own seat allocation process. Top 2,20,000 candidates of JEE Main will be eligible to appear in JEE Advanced on May 21, 2017 to fight for one of 11,032 seats in prestigious IITs.
(The writer is director, FIITJEE)