BHUBANESWAR: As many as 48,000 students appeared at the JEE Main offline test of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at 71 centres in nine cities across the State on Sunday.
The centres designated by the CBSE for the written offline tests were Bhubaneswar, Angul, Balasore, Berhampur, Bhawanipatna, Cuttack, Jeypore, Rourkela and Sambalpur.
The students were asked to report at the examination centres at 7 am even though the test was scheduled to begin at 9 am. Physically-challenged candidates were allowed an extra hour to write the tests. As per the CBSE notification, the JEE Main offline test was held in two sittings from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm for engineering stream and from 2 pm to 5 pm for architecture stream.
The attendance in the first paper was 95 per cent while the second sitting of the examination witnessed 90 per cent candidates appearing of the total students who got admit cards. The CBSE adopted a slew of measures to ensure smooth conduct of the test across the State.
“Except the admit cards, nothing was allowed into the examination hall and no incident of malpractice was reported from any of 21 centres in Odisha,” CBSE Regional Officer LN Meena said. The State police provided adequate security in each centre to avoid any untoward incident, he said.
Meanwhile, the test evoked mixed reactions from students. For many, chemistry and physics parts were tougher than mathematics. Most of the students observed that the paper was too lengthy.
The JEE Main online examination would be held on April 9 and 10. Students have to apply and deposit their examination fee online through JEE website. Results of the test would be announced on June 18.