JEE MainJoint Entrance Examination – Main
About JEE Main
JEE Main is India's largest engineering entrance examination and the standard national gateway to undergraduate engineering education. Conducted by the National Testing Agency since 2019, it is held in two sessions each year — typically January and April — and a candidate's best NTA score across sessions is used for ranking. The exam is offered in 13 languages and administered as a computer-based test at centres across India and abroad. Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech) tests Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics; Papers 2A and 2B serve B.Arch and B.Planning admissions respectively.
The exam plays a dual role: it directly determines admission to the NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded technical institutes through JoSAA counselling, and it acts as the screening round for JEE Advanced — only the top roughly 2.5 lakh scorers (spread across categories) become eligible to attempt the IIT entrance. Because lakhs of candidates compete each year, percentile-based normalisation across shifts is used to make scores comparable.
The current Paper 1 pattern has 75 compulsory questions — 20 multiple-choice and 5 numerical-value questions per subject — worth 300 marks, with uniform +4/−1 marking; the earlier optional-choice window in the numerical section was withdrawn from the 2025 cycle. Most state governments and private universities also admit against JEE Main ranks, so a single good score opens far more doors than the centrally funded institutes alone. The syllabus tracks Class 11–12 physics, chemistry and mathematics, making board preparation and JEE preparation substantially overlapping.
Accepted by: 31+ NITs, 26 IIITs and about 40 other government-funded technical institutes via JoSAA/CSAB; most state and private universities also accept JEE Main scores; it is the sole qualifying gateway to JEE Advanced (IITs)
Official websiteJEE Main eligibility
Candidates must have passed Class 12 (or equivalent) with Physics and Mathematics plus at least one of Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology or a technical vocational subject. There is no age limit; candidates may appear in the year of their Class 12 exam and in the two consecutive years after it (with two sessions a year, up to six attempts over three years). Note that qualifying JEE Main alone is not enough for NIT/IIIT/GFTI admission — candidates must additionally have at least 75% aggregate in Class 12 (65% for SC/ST) or rank in the top 20 percentile of their board.
JEE Main exam pattern
Sections
- Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech): Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics — 25 questions each (20 MCQs + 5 numerical-value questions)
- Paper 2A (B.Arch): Mathematics, Aptitude, Drawing — total 400 marks
- Paper 2B (B.Planning): Mathematics, Aptitude, Planning-based questions — total 400 marks
Marking scheme: +4 for a correct answer, −1 for an incorrect answer; negative marking applies to both MCQ and numerical-value questions in recent cycles
JEE Main syllabus outline
- Physics: mechanics, thermodynamics, electrostatics and current electricity, magnetism, optics, modern physics, waves
- Chemistry: physical chemistry (mole concept, equilibrium, kinetics), inorganic chemistry (periodic table, coordination compounds), organic chemistry (hydrocarbons, biomolecules, name reactions)
- Mathematics: algebra, coordinate geometry, calculus, vectors and 3D geometry, trigonometry, probability and statistics
- Paper 2A adds general aptitude (visualising 3D objects, awareness of buildings/materials) and drawing/sketching
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