Online test from April 9

The Central Board of Secondary Education on Tuesday formally announced that the pattern of Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for admission into NITs and CFTIs for the next academic year would be the same as of last year and dropped enough signals that marks obtained in the Intermediate are vital for getting a seat.

“For admission to NITs, Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) like IIITs etc. and other participating Institutions, the merit/rank list shall be prepared based on 40 per cent weightage to School Boards marks in Class XII or equivalent examination and 60 per cent weightage to JEE(Mains). The weightage to School Board or equivalent examination marks shall be considered only after normalisation. Hence students aspiring to get a seat should keep in mind that their performance in class XII (Intermediate) will be equally important,” the Joint Advisory Board (JAB), the apex board which would conduct the test stated.

Confirming that the off-line examination would be held on April 6, 2014, the JAB informed that the online application submission would commence from November 15 onwards and the last date for applying will be December 26. The detailed information bulletin will be released after a week on the official website www.jeemain.nic.in. Facilitation centres to help candidates upload fill in applications would be set up.

In a big relief to students, the CBSE made the entire application process through online, including uploading of photograph and signature and payment of fees. It informed that the candidates are not required to send any document to JEE (Main) Secretariat.

JEE (Main) will have two papers- Paper I is for BE and BTech and Paper II for B Architecture and B Planning. Paper I would be in objective mode from Physics, chemistry and Mathematics for three hours from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm on April 6.

The online examination (computer based test) would be held on April 9, 11, 12 and 19 from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. In case of technical snag, the test would be held from 2 pm- 5 pm on the same day.

Three chances are given to appear for JEE Main. This means, only those candidates who have passed their Intermediate examination in 2012 or 2013; or those who are appearing in their Intermediate final examination in 2014 are eligible to appear in JEE (Main) - 2014.

Candidates who cleared in 2011 or before, as well as those who will appear in such examination in 2015 or later are not eligible. Candidates who appeared in Intermediate final exam in 2011 but did not clear in 2011, but passed in 2012 are also not eligible to appear in JEE (Main) 2014, JAB made it clear.

To encourage girl students, CBSE has given 50 per cent reduction in fee. It is Rs 1,000 for boys and Rs 500 for girls. The candidates should furnish all the details and upload scanned image of his/her photograph and signature while filling up the On-line application. Candidates are required to take a print out of the computer generated acknowledgement slip after successful submission of data and payment of fees and keep the same in the safe custody for any future reference. Three states- Gujarat, Maharashtra and Odisha have joined JEE (Main) system from this year. This means they would make the admissions in their engineering and other professional colleges basing on rank obtained in JEE Main. Some academicians in Andhra Pradesh too have suggested that AP too shall follow the same for ensuring quality in admissions.

“We cannot say that Eamcet is of inferior quality but it is completely designed on state syllabus. There has been a shift towards CBSE curriculum these days. Hence it is better if we too join the JEE stream” Dr VK Mahendra, a faculty in Amrita Institutions of Bangalore told The Hans India.