JEE Main Exam: Pattern, Eligibility, Dates and Marking Scheme

JEE Main is the national engineering entrance exam conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) twice a year, in January and April, for admission to B.E./B.Tech, B.Arch and B.Planning courses at NITs, IIITs and centrally funded technical institutes. Paper 1 for B.E./B.Tech is a 3-hour computer-based test of 75 questions worth 300 marks, marked +4 for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong one. It is also the qualifying route to JEE Advanced: the top 2,50,000 candidates from Paper 1 become eligible to sit for the IIT entrance.

Everything below reflects the position as of September 2026, for the JEE Main 2027 cycle. Where NTA has not yet published a number in the official Information Bulletin, this page says so instead of guessing.

JEE Main exam at a glance

JEE Main 2027 exam dates

NTA published its examination calendar in a public notice dated 16 September 2026. As reported from that calendar, JEE Main 2027 Session 1 is scheduled for 22, 23, 24, 28, 29 and 30 January 2027, with 31 January 2027 held as a buffer date.

Two honest caveats. First, calendar dates are provisional until the Information Bulletin confirms them. Second, Session 2 dates have not been announced at the time of writing; the April session is normally held in the first half of April.

The registration window is the part students most often get wrong, so learn the rule rather than a date:

• The Session 1 application window typically opens in late October or November and stays open for roughly three to four weeks.
• The correction window opens for a few days after the application closes, and it is the only chance to fix category, photograph or exam-city entries.
• Admit cards are released roughly three to seven days before the exam date, city intimation slips about two weeks earlier.
• The Session 2 application window opens after the Session 1 exam is over, usually in February.

Check the NTA website and jeemain.nta.nic.in for the bulletin rather than relying on coaching-site dates, including the ones on this page.

JEE Main exam pattern 2027

Paper 1: B.E./B.Tech

The important change to know: Section B no longer has optional questions. From the 2021 session to the 2024 session, Section B had 10 numerical questions per subject of which any 5 were to be attempted, with no negative marking on them. From the 2025 session onward NTA cut Section B to 5 questions per subject, all compulsory, and applied negative marking to them. If you are practising from a 2023 book or an old mock paper, its pattern is out of date.

Section B answers are entered as a numerical value on an on-screen keypad, not chosen from options. The score range for Paper 1 therefore runs from -75 to +300.

Paper 2A: B.Arch

Paper 2B: B.Planning

A candidate may apply for Paper 1 only, Paper 2A only, Paper 2B only, or any combination, paying the fee for each.

Marking scheme and how the score is worked out

• Correct answer: +4 marks
• Incorrect answer: -1 mark (this now applies to Section B as well)
• Unattempted: 0 marks
• If a question is dropped or has more than one correct option, NTA awards marks per the rules published with the final answer key.

A worked example for Paper 1. Suppose you attempt 60 of the 75 questions and 46 are correct:

• Correct: 46 × 4 = +184
• Incorrect: 14 × (-1) = -14
• Unattempted: 15 × 0 = 0
• Raw score = 170 out of 300

That arithmetic is why blind guessing hurts. Each wrong answer costs you 1 mark and also costs the 4 marks you might have earned by spending that minute on a question you actually knew.

Raw marks are not the final result. Because the exam runs in many shifts, NTA converts raw marks into a percentile score, computed separately for each shift and reported to seven decimal places. A percentile tells you the percentage of candidates in that shift who scored equal to or below you, so the topper of every shift gets 100. When a candidate appears in both sessions, the better of the two NTA scores is used for the final merit list and rank. Do not compare percentile with marks across years; the mapping shifts with the difficulty and the number of candidates.

This page deliberately quotes no cut-off marks or closing percentiles. Those change every year with paper difficulty and candidate count, and any specific figure you read months in advance is a guess.

JEE Main eligibility criteria

Qualifying examination and year

You must have passed Class 12 or an equivalent examination in 2025 or 2026, or be appearing for it in 2027, to sit for JEE Main 2027. Candidates who passed in 2024 or earlier are not eligible.

Subjects

• Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech): Physics and Mathematics compulsory, plus any one of Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology or a Technical Vocational subject. Five subjects must have been taken in Class 12.
• Paper 2A (B.Arch): Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in Class 12.
• Paper 2B (B.Planning): Mathematics in Class 12.

Age limit and attempts

There is no age limit for appearing in JEE Main. NTA does not reject a candidate on age; individual institutes may still apply their own admission rules.

On attempts, the rule is stated in years, not sittings: a candidate may appear in three consecutive years starting with the year of the Class 12 examination. Since the exam runs twice a year and both sessions in a year count as one attempt in the sense of the best score being taken, this works out to up to six sittings across those three years.

The 75% rule for NIT, IIIT and GFTI admission

This one is misread every single year, so read it slowly. The 75% requirement is an admission condition, not an exam-eligibility condition. You can write JEE Main with any Class 12 marks. But to take a seat at an NIT, IIIT or GFTI through JoSAA counselling you must also have either:

• at least 75% aggregate marks in Class 12 (relaxed to 65% for SC, ST and PwD candidates), or
• a rank in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in your own board in that year.

The relaxations NTA granted during the pandemic years have not been continued, and as of the 2027 cycle this criterion remains in force. The same 75% / top-20-percentile condition applies to IIT admission through JEE Advanced.

Application form and fee

The application is entirely online at jeemain.nta.nic.in. You register with a valid email and mobile number, fill in personal and academic details, choose up to four exam cities, upload a recent photograph and signature in the specified size, pay online, then download the confirmation page and keep it.

Fees for the 2026 cycle, for an India exam centre, were as follows. The 2027 bulletin was not out at the time of writing, so treat these as the likely bands and confirm them in the bulletin.

Fees for centres outside India are considerably higher. Payment is online by card, net banking or UPI, and the fee is non-refundable, so check every field in the confirmation page before you close the browser.

In how many languages is JEE Main held?

JEE Main is conducted in 13 languages: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Two practical notes. Regional-language question papers are generally offered at centres in the states where those languages are used, and you select the medium at the application stage. In a bilingual paper, if there is any difference in meaning between the English version and the translation, the English version is treated as final.

From JEE Main to JEE Advanced and JoSAA

JEE Main results feed two separate admission routes.

1. NITs, IIITs and GFTIs. Admission is on the JEE Main All India Rank through JoSAA counselling, followed by CSAB special rounds for leftover seats. Home-state quota applies at NITs, so your state of eligibility matters.
2. IITs. The top 2,50,000 candidates in JEE Main Paper 1, counted across all categories with the reserved-category shares applied within that number, become eligible to register for JEE Advanced. JEE Advanced has its own separate attempt limit of two consecutive years, which is stricter than JEE Main’s.

So the practical target is simple to state: clear the Advanced eligibility band if IITs are the goal, and push the rank as high as possible for the NIT and IIIT branch you want.

A short word on preparation

The syllabus is the NCERT Class 11 and 12 Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics content as notified by NTA, so the NCERT books are the base and not an optional extra, especially for inorganic and physical chemistry. Beyond that, three things separate ranks at this level: speed under a 3-hour clock, accuracy given the -1 penalty, and honest analysis of mock tests. Sitting a full-length paper in the same 9 am to 12 noon or 3 pm to 6 pm slot as the real shift, then spending as long reviewing it as you spent writing it, is worth more than a fresh chapter.

Use the official NTA Abhyas-style mock tests on the NTA site, because they mirror the actual CBT interface: the question palette, the review-later flag, the numerical keypad. Students lose marks in their first attempt simply from being unfamiliar with the screen.

References

• National Testing Agency (NTA) – public notice on the examination calendar, dated 16 September 2026.
• jeemain.nta.nic.in – JEE Main Information Bulletin (2027 bulletin awaited at the time of writing).
• JoSAA business rules on the 75% / top-20-percentile requirement for NIT, IIIT and GFTI admission.

FAQs

How many times is JEE Main conducted in a year?

Twice. NTA conducts Session 1 in January and Session 2 in April. A candidate may appear in one session or both, and when both are attempted the better of the two NTA scores is used for the merit list and rank. Appearing in both sessions does not reduce your score in any way.

What is the JEE Main exam pattern and marking scheme?

Paper 1 for B.E./B.Tech has 75 questions worth 300 marks in 3 hours: 25 questions each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, made up of 20 MCQs in Section A and 5 numerical questions in Section B. Every question carries +4 for a correct answer and -1 for an incorrect one, including Section B since the 2025 session. Paper 2A has 77 questions and Paper 2B has 100 questions, each for 400 marks.

Is 75% in Class 12 compulsory for JEE Main?

Not for writing the exam. You can appear for JEE Main with any Class 12 marks. The 75% aggregate, or 65% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, or a place in the top 20 percentile of your board, is required only to take admission to an NIT, IIIT or GFTI through JoSAA counselling, and to IITs through JEE Advanced.

How many attempts are allowed and is there an age limit?

There is no age limit for JEE Main. A candidate may appear in three consecutive years starting from the year of the Class 12 examination, which works out to up to six sittings since the exam is held twice a year. JEE Advanced is separate and allows only two consecutive years.

How many candidates qualify for JEE Advanced through JEE Main?

The top 2,50,000 candidates from JEE Main Paper 1 are eligible to register for JEE Advanced, with reserved-category shares applied within that number. Qualifying for JEE Advanced is the only route to the IITs; NITs, IIITs and GFTIs admit on the JEE Main rank itself.

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