The Joint Entrance Examination(JEE) Advanced, in its first edition, stayed true to its billing of springing a surprise on aspirants. Many students who wrote the exam to gain admission to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) — which comprised two papers of 180 marks each — were taken aback by the negative marking system in Paper II and the difficulty level in Mathematics section. A total of 3,240 students wrote the exam, with 2,371 appearing in Chennai,510 in Madurai and 359 in Puducherry.
Sai Praveen, who wrote the exam, said, “I expected a tough paper and went with the approach of tackling all questions, but the paper seemed tougher than usual. Mathematics section in paper-I, although a tad easier, had a few tricky questions. Paper-II was considerably difficult.”
On the marking system, he explains that usually not all questions have negative marking, but this time all questions in paper-II had it. Physics and Chemistry sections were relatively easier to this student, who was among the toppers in JEE (Mains) from the State, with a score of 331.
Joe Kurian Eapen, a student of Chettinad Vidyashram who wrote the exam, too rated the maths section as complex, followed by physics and chemistry. “I would rate the JEE Advanced a little harder than the 2011 IIT entrance exam. Although many found paper-II difficult, it was the other way round for me,” he said.
The paper offered equal weightage of 60 marks each to physics, chemistry and maths. While paper-I had 10 single-choice questions, 5 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 5 numericals, the second had 8 MCQs, an equal number based on comprehension and four ‘match-the-following’ queries. The ‘matching list’ type of questions with a description at the top followed by a matching list - three marks each — were introduced this year.
The fact that the second paper was lengthier could have lent it the perception of being difficult, contends Pavan Kumar, deputy director of IIT-JEE. He adds that the negative marking could have made things difficult from the students’ point of view. Many were stumped by the single-digit numericals too, he feels.
This means, the possibility of a low cut-off for admissions to IITs looms large. Pavan Kumar feels 140 (out of 360) would be a par cut-off score, which coincides with a rank of 9,000. “Traditionally, the cut-offs have hovered around 40 per cent. 2011 was an exception when it rose to 48 per cent.”
Around 1,25,000 students in 95 cities across the nation have attempted the JEE Advanced.