JEE cutoff for IIT entrance: 32%

 Nearly 1.54 lakh aspiring engineers who scored 32 per cent in this year’s Joint Entrance Examination (Main) were today declared eligible for the entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Technology.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) brought out the merit list for the JEE Main. Those who scored 115 out of the full marks of 360 have made it to the list of candidates eligible to take the JEE Advanced on May 25.

Clearing that test will pave the way for admission to the 16 IITs and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

CBSE chairperson Vineet Joshi said the results were announced after examining candidate feedback on the questions and answer keys.

The board had put out the answer keys on Monday. Hundreds of students have complained alleging mistakes in the questions or answer keys.

“All the questions and answers have been verified. We will again put the final answer keys on our website,” Joshi said.

The CBSE will bring out another merit list by combining the JEE Main and the board results of the candidates. Those who find a place on that list will be eligible for admission to the National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

The IITs do not admit candidates on the basis of the JEE Main alone. They consider the JEE Main as the first filter to identify candidates for the JEE Advanced.

The candidates selected through the JEE Main have to register next week for the May 25 JEE Advanced. The results will be declared on June 19.

The Union human resource development ministry plans to ask the IITs to drop the JEE Advanced from 2015 and admit students through the JEE Main alone. But IIT teachers may oppose any such move.

Nearly 13 lakh candidates took the JEE Main last month. The paper had 90 questions carrying a total of 360 marks. For each wrong answer, a candidate gets one negative mark.

The CBSE released the answer keys on April 28 and asked candidates to submit their feedback within a day. Only candidates can challenge the answers, that too for a fee of Rs 1,000. The high fee has annoyed many students.

Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha will admit students to their engineering colleges, both private and government-run, on the basis of the JEE Main results. Gujarat, Haryana and Uttarakhand adopted the JEE Main last year. Bengal is likely to adopt it from 2015-16.

This means there will be no state-level JEE in these states. Candidates seeking admission to the 285 engineering colleges in Madhya Pradesh, 729 in Maharashtra, 199 in Odisha and about 300 colleges in Gujarat, Haryana and Uttarakhand would take the JEE Main. The CBSE will publish a national merit list and state-specific merit lists.

Till recently, states conducted their own JEEs for admission to government and private engineering colleges. But the Centre wants all the states to adopt the JEE Main.