About IIT JEE Entrance Exam

INTRODUCTION

The Indian Institutes of Technology are institutions of national importance established through an Act of Parliament. These institutes play a leading role in technological manpower development and have research programmes comparable to the best in the world. The admissions to the Undergraduate Programmes at these institutions for all Indian and Foreign nationals are made through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, is one of the oldest institutions devoted to education in various engineering disciplines. Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad, is the oldest institution of its kind in India. The admissions to the Undergraduate Programmes at these institutions are also made through JEE.

All these institutions are known for providing quality education in science and technology and for research in frontier areas. The environment at these institutions is highly conducive for

building a solid foundation of knowledge,
development of personality, confidence building, self-discipline, pursuit of excellence and
enhancement of creativity, motivation and drive.

All of the above help to prepare the students admitted to these institutions for successful professional and social lives. Today, alumni of these institutions occupy key positions in industry and academia in India and abroad.

Each institute has well-equipped modern laboratories, state-of-the-art computer network, and well stocked technical library. Teaching methods rely on direct personal contact between the teachers and the students, and the use of traditional and modern instructional techniques. Students live in a pleasant and intellectually stimulating environment with people having similar goals and aspirations, which is an exciting and unique experience.

Credit-based academic programmes offer flexibility to students to progress at their own pace. A minimum level of performance is necessary for satisfactory progress. The medium of instruction is English. These institutions offer courses leading to Bachelor’s degree in a number of engineering, technological, and scientific disciplines.

M.Sc. Integrated courses in pure and applied sciences and M.Tech. Integrated courses in a few disciplines are also offered by some of these Institutions. In addition, some IITs offer Dual-Degree M.Tech. programmes, wherein both B.Tech. and M.Tech. degrees are awarded.

Current examination format

IITJEE-2009 was held on April 12, 2009. JEE-2008 was conducted on April 13, 2008 retaining the same pattern as JEE-2007 containing Paper-I & Paper-II (JEE-2007 had two papers of three hours duration each). The two papers each contained maths, physics and chemistry sections (in previous years, there were separate maths, physics and chemistry papers, each of two hours' duration). The syllabus of the examination is based on topics covered by the CBSE Board Examination (AISSCE) and the ISC Board Examination , though all topics of the AISSCE and the ISC are not included in the JEE syllabus. The pattern of questions in JEE is deliberately variable so as to minimize the chance of students getting selected by cramming up the probable questions. Currently, the examination has objective type question paper for all the subjects and uses machine readable Optical mark recognition answer sheets.

Given the importance attached to the JEE by students all over India, the IITs follow a rigorous procedure when conducting it every year. The exam is set by the JEE Committee (consisting of a group of faculty members drawn from the admitting colleges) under the tightest security. Multiple sets of question papers are framed and the set that is to actually be used on the day of the exam is known to only about five individuals. In the past, the JEE has been noted for originality in its questions.

History

The JEE has evolved considerably from its initial pattern approximately 52 years back. Initially, there were 4 subjects in JEE, the English language paper being the additional subject. During the period from 2000 to 2005, the JEE also had a screening test in addition to the JEE main examination in order to reduce the load on the JEE main examination by screening only about 20,000 top candidates. In 1997, the JEE was conducted twice after the question paper was leaked in some centres.

In September 2005, an analysis group comprising of directors of all the IITs announced major reforms in JEE, implemented from 2006 onwards. The new test consists of a single objective test, replacing the earlier two-test system. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate in the qualifying examination of the XII^th standard organized by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum of 55% in aggregate in the Qualifying Examination.The introduction of only one stage objective exam instead of two stages and a subjective one has led to decline in quality of students who are selected. This can be well understood by the fact that over one hundred students failed in their Ist year B.Tech exams at IIT Kanpur alone.

In 2008, the director and the dean of IIT Madras called for revamping JEE, saying that the coaching institutes were "enabling many among the less-than-best students to crack the test and keeping girls from qualifying." They expressed concern that the present system did not allow for the 12 years of schooling to have a bearing on admissions into IITs.^[2]

According to the data released by the organizing committee of IIT-JEE, the children of medical professionals had the highest success rate in the IIT-JEE (for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008). They were followed by the children of engineers. The maximum number of students taking IIT-JEE are the children of government employees, but they had a much lower success rate.^[3]

Seats

The number of students taking this examination has increased substantially each year with the JEE-2008 registering about 311,258 candidates. The availability of seats in recent years is as given in table below:

Institute	Intake (2003)	Intake (2006)	Intake (2007)	Intake (2008)	Intake (2009)
IIT Bombay	554	574	574	648	746
IIT Delhi	552	553	553	626	721
IIT Guwahati	350	365	365	435	498
IIT Kanpur	456	555	541	608	702
IIT Kharagpur	659	895	874	988	1138
IIT Madras	554	520	540	612	713
IIT Roorkee	546	616	746	884	1013
New IIT's opened in 2008
IIT Bhubaneshwar				120	120
IIT Gandhinagar				120	120
IIT Hyderabad				120	120
IIT Patna				120	120
IIT Punjab				120	120
IIT Rajasthan				120	120
New IIT's opened in 2009
IIT Indore					120
IIT Mandi					120
Total (IIT's)	3571	4078	4193	5521	6491
IT-BHU (Varanasi)	568	708	686	766	881
ISM Dhanbad	444	658	658	705	923
TOTAL	4583	5444	5537	6992	8295

The age limit for appearing in IIT-JEE is 25 years. For candidates belonging to SC, ST and PD categories, the relaxed age limit is 30 years. Also, starting 2007, a candidate can take the JEE two times at the most. This has been done mainly to reduce stress on students and discourage the concept of "cram schools". Furthermore, from 2007 on, students who are selected for admission to an IIT cannot attempt the examination again in the future. From 2008 six new IITs have been opened with 120 seats each increasing the total no.of seats to almost 7000. For 2009, admissions are to be made to two more IITs, namely IIT Indore and IIT Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) taking the seat count to almost 8300.

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