Joint Entrance Examination – Main

Not to be confused with Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced.

Joint Entrance Examination – Main (JEE-Main), formerly All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), is an Indian standardised computer-based test for admission to various technical undergraduate programs in engineering, architecture, and planning across colleges in India. The exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency for admission to B.Tech, B.Arch, etc. programs in premier technical institutes such as the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT), which are based on the rank secured in the JEE-Main. It is usually conducted twice every year. Since mid of 2019, the JEE has been conducted fully online as a computerised test.

Joint Entrance Examination – Main

Acronym	JEE-Main
Type	Electronic assessment
Developer / administrator	National Testing Agency
Knowledge / skills tested	Paper 1: Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics Paper 2 (for B.Arch only): Mathematics, Aptitude, Drawing, and Planning
Purpose	Admission to undergraduate engineering and architecture courses in 31 NITs, 25 IIITs, and 33 GFTIs. Also serves as a preliminary selection for JEE-Advanced.
Year started	2002 (22 years ago) (2002) Formerly known as AIEEE
Duration	3 hours
Score / grade range	-75 to +300 in Paper 1
Offered	2 times per year
Restrictions on attempts	Maximum three attempts in consecutive years, with no age limit
Countries / regions	India
Languages	English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu
Annual number of test takers	1,415,110 (2024) (B.E./B.Tech) 46,336 (2022) (B.Arch) 17,817 (2022) (B.Planning)
Prerequisites / eligibility criteria	Class 12 or equivalent with Mathematics, Physics and any one of the technical subjects prescribed by AICTE from recognised board/university.
Qualification rate	250,000 qualify for JEE-Advanced
Website	https://jeemain.nta.ac.in/

History

The AIEEE was introduced in 2002, since the newly established NIT and IIIT universities wanted an entrance examination paper of a higher standard than the Common Engineering Test (CET), which was formerly used for admission to all non-IIT engineering universities, including even RECs and IIITs, owing mostly to the rising competition and the goal of maintaining the exclusiveness of such institutes of national importance. It was renamed to JEE-Main in 2013.

Until 2018, the exam was held both in pen and paper and CBT modes,^[1] as well as was held in the first week of April by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). It is conducted by National Testing Agency in CBT mode only from 2018 onwards.

The 2020 and 2021 exams were postponed and conducted later in the same years, due to the coronavirus pandemic.^[2] 2021 was the only year throughout JEE-Main history, when a maximum of 4 attempts were given to students.^[3] In general, for the rest of the years, most students took the JEE-Main exam in either 1 or 2 attempts, even though a maximum of 3 attempts is allowed during two consecutive years.

Structure

The examination consists of only two papers: Paper 1 for B.E./B.Tech courses and Paper 2 for B.Arch and B.Planning courses.^[4] A candidate can opt for any or both the papers. Paper 1 is mandatorily a computer based test (called online mode) from 2018 onwards. Until 2018, there was an option between offline pen and paper mode and online computer mode. The examination was conducted only in offline pen and paper mode till 2010. In 2011, as per the orders of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, CBSE conducted Paper 1 in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode for the first one lakh candidates who opted for the same, while the remaining students took the examination in the conventional pen and paper mode.^[5] The number of attempts which a candidate can avail at the examination is limited to three in consecutive years. As of 2018^[update], the top 2,24,000 rankers of JEE-Main will qualify to take the second and final level of examination: JEE-Advanced.^[6]

In 2010, the Ministry of Human Resource Development announced plans to replace JEE with a common entrance test for all government engineering colleges which will be called Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET), by 2013.^[7][8] Accordingly, MHRD proposes to set up National Testing Service, which will be an autonomous and self-sustained agency to conduct this new common entrance test.

The JEE-Main also serves as a preliminary requisite examination for JEE-Advanced.

Languages

The exam is offered in thirteen languages, namely English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.^[9]

Mode of Exam

• B.E./B.Tech (Paper 1): Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics
• B.Arch (Paper 2A): Mathematics, Aptitude, and Drawing
• B.Planning (Paper 2B): Mathematics, Aptitude, and Planning

Participating institutes

Institutes participating in the 2022 centralized seat allocation process included:

• The 31 National Institutes of Technology.
• The 25 Indian Institutes of Information Technology.
• 33 Government Funded Technical Institutes.
• State institutes.
• Several self-financed institutes (during the spot round).
• Many private Deemed universities use JEE (Main) rank for admissions through their own seat allocation processes.
• Indirectly, the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology.

Number of applicants by year

The number of applicants taking the JEE-Main has varied over the years, with a peak of over 1.35 million in 2014.

B.E./B.Tech

Year	Phase	No. of registered applicants	No. of appeared applicants	No. of unique registered applicants	No. of unique appeared applicants	Reference(s)
2002	Once a year	212,000	190,000	N/A		^[10]
2003		328,000	298,000
2004		418,000	357,000
2005		436,000	399,000
2006		524,000	493,000
2007		645,000	602,000
2008		863,000	791,000
2009		1,010,000	962,119
2010		1,120,000	1,070,000
2011		1,110,000	1,050,000
2012		1,137,256	1,061,854			^[11]
2013		1,282,000				^[12]
2014		1,356,805				^[13]
2015		1,304,495				^[14]
2016		1,194,934	1,128,633			^[15]
2017		1,186,454	1,122,351			^[16]
2018		1,259,000	1,043,000			^[17]^[18]
2019	1	929,198	874,469	1,237,892	1,147,125	^[19]
	2	935,741	881,096
2020	1	921,000	869,000	1,174,000	1,023,000	^[20]
	2	841,000	635,000
2021	1	652,628	621,033	1,048,012	939,008	^[21]
	2	619,641	556,248
	3	709,611	543,553
	4	767,700	481,419
2022	1	872,970	769,604	1,026,799	905,590	^[22]
	2	622,034	540,242
2023	1	860,064	823,967	1,162,398	1,113,325	^[23]^[24]^[25]
	2	931,510	883,372
2024	1	1,221,624	1,170,048	1,476,557	1,415,110	^[26]^[27]^[28]
	2	1,179,569	1,067,959

B.Arch

(From 2021)

Year	Phase	No. of registered applicants	No. of appeared applicants	No. of unique registered applicants	No. of unique appeared applicants	Reference(s)
2021	1	59,962	48,836	91,468	62,035	^[29]^[30]
	2	74,479	29,004
2022	1	61,534	39,639	77,849	46,336	^[31]
	2	32,724	14,924
2023	1
	2
2024	1	68,147	51,570			^[32]
	2

B.Planning

(From 2021)

Year	Phase	No. of registered applicants	No. of appeared applicants	No. of unique registered applicants	No. of unique appeared applicants	Reference(s)
2021	1	25,810	19,352	40,346	24,351	^[29]^[30]
	2	32,108	10,551
2022	1	25,820	15,371	33,048	17,817	^[31]
	2	12,758	4,912
2023	1
	2
2024	1	36,672	24,876			^[32]
	2

Common Paper (B.Arch/B.Planning)

(Before 2021)

Year	Phase	No. of registered applicants	No. of appeared applicants	No. of unique registered applicants	No. of unique appeared applicants	Reference(s)
2019	1	180,052	145,386	275,913	227,907	^[33]
	2	169,759	144,032
2020	1	145,189	118,732	207,369	147,983	^[34]
	2	112,139	76,889

Counselling

Earlier, counselling for the JEE-Main was conducted through the CSAB; but, now, the authorities have made changes in the counselling procedure. The JAB (Joint Admission Board), representing IITs, and the CSAB (Central Seat Allocation Board), making agreements on behalf of the NITs (National Institutes of Technology) and other CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutes), are now united to conduct counselling (common counselling) for the two exams of the IIT-JEE. The memo for the same was signed on May 2, 2015. These two together are known as the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).^[35]

2011 incident

In 2011, CBSE postponed the examination by a few hours after the question papers were leaked in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh the night before. Meanwhile, an alternate set of question papers were sent to those examination centres. CBSE announced the postponement of the exam 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the examination.^[36][37]

See also

• National Institute of Technology
• All India Council for Technical Education
• Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced
• National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate)
• List of Public service commissions in India

References

1. "JEE Main results 2018 date and time: Results declared at cbseresults.nic.in, jeemain.nic.in". The Indian Express. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
2. "IIT-JEE Mains April session deferred due to rise in COVID-19 cases". Businesstoday.in. 18 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
3. "JEE Main 2021: NTA clears doubts regarding multiple attempts, exam dates". India Today. 26 December 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
4. "JEE revamp: Science no more must for BPlanning – Times of India". The Times of India. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
5. The Times of India (22 November 2010). . The Times of India. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012.
6. Bhandary, Shreya (30 October 2017). "Eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced 2018 released, more students can appear for exam". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
7. . sify.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
8. "ISEET to replace IIT JEE and AIEEE". Blog.eduflix.tv.
9. Gohain, Manash Pratim (28 November 2019). "JEE Main to be conducted in 11 languages from January 2021". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
10. "Number of Candidates in JEE Main". jeepage.in. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
11. "The result of All-India Engineering/Architecture Entrance Examination (AIEEE) 2012 conducted by CBSE has been declared. Candidates can look out for their All India Rank on www.cbse.nic.in and www.aieee.nic.in . This year as many as 1137256 students registered for paper I for BE/BTech out of which 1061854 appeared. for paper II BArch/B Planning 83049 candidates registered out of which 71316 candidates appeared". The Times of India. 10 June 2012. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
12. "Number of applicants for JEE Main decreased in 2015". Jagranjosh.com. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
13. "JEE Main 2014 Result Analysis | shiksha.com". www.shiksha.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
14. "Over 13 lakh aspirants for JEE Main 2015". 14 January 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
15. "CBSE JEE Main 2016: Check out the result analysis here!". India Today. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
16. (PDF). 26 July 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
17. "JEE Main Answer Key 2018 Released". NDTV.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
18. "Students Appear for JEE Main Exam Yearly Analysis From 2018". 17 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
19. (PDF). 29 April 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
20. (PDF). 19 June 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
21. (PDF). 9 March 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
22. (PDF). 8 August 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
23. "JEE (Main) 2023 Session 1". Twitter. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
24. "JEE (Main) 2023 highlights". Twitter. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
25. (PDF). 5 June 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
26. "JEE Main 2024 Session 1 Press Release" (PDF).
27. "75% of JEE(M) candidates taking both shots to maximise scores". The Times of India. 30 March 2024. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
28. "JEE Main Session 2(BE/B Tech) Results" (PDF).
29. (PDF). 16 July 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
30. (PDF). 16 July 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
31. (PDF). 3 September 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
32. "Declaration of JEE (Main) - 2024 Session 1 NTA Scores for Paper 2 (B.Arch. / B.Planning)" (PDF).
33. (PDF). 19 June 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
34. (PDF). 19 June 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
35. "Joint Seat Allocation Authority 2016". Retrieved 26 August 2016.
36. Central Board of Secondary Education (1 May 2011). "AIEEE-2011 Important Press Release" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
37. Times of India. . The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2011.

External links

• Official website