JEE Main session 1 is 22–30 January 2027: NTA publishes its calendar to March

The National Testing Agency has published its examination calendar from the December 2026 cycle through March 2027 — fourteen examinations, with proposed dates and durations. The agency's stated reason is transparency and predictability, and for once that is not boilerplate: an engineering aspirant can now see the whole run-up to JEE Main without waiting for a notification.

December 2026

• Rashtriya Indian Military College — 6 December
• SWAYAM (July 2026 semester) — 8 to 12 December
• Rashtriya Military Schools — 13 December
• UGC NET, December cycle — 14 to 19 December (buffer 20–21 December)
• Joint CSIR-UGC NET, December cycle — 20 to 21 December

January 2027

• Army Cadets College — 4 January
• SHRESHTA (NETS) — 10 January
• NIFT entrance examination — 10 January
• JEE (Main) Session 1 — 22 to 24 and 28 to 30 January, with 31 January held as a buffer
• All India Sainik Schools entrance — 31 January

February and March 2027

• CMAT — 7 February
• NITTT Part 1 — 26 to 27 February; Part 2 — 5 and 7 March
• CUET (PG) — 1 to 5, 8, 12 to 20 and 24 to 25 March, with 30–31 March as buffer

The caveats the agency itself prints

The dates are tentative and may change for administrative, academic, statutory or logistical reasons. Publishing the calendar is explicitly not a notification for any examination — the information bulletins, application windows, city intimation slips and admit cards all come separately. So use this to plan, and keep watching the individual examination portals for the dates that bind.

What a Class 12 student should do with it

JEE Main session 1 falling in the last ten days of January means board practicals and the first engineering attempt now sit on top of each other for most boards. Work backwards: if your first JEE attempt is on 22 January, the last realistic week for full-syllabus mock tests is the first week of January, and revision planning should assume you lose most of February to boards.

CareerBox News Desk — reporting on the Examination Calendar up to March 2027 published by the National Testing Agency. Official portal: nta.ac.in. Dates and eligibility change; confirm them on the official portal before you act.