JEE Main 2018 dates announced

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced that the offline mode of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main for 2018 will be held on April 8. The JEE exam is conducted by the CBSE for admission to Undergraduate Engineering courses in NITs, IITs, and other centrally funded technical institutes.

In order to ensure a smooth evaluation process, the Joint Admission Board has taken a decision to conduct a computer-based JEE Advanced. According to a report by TOI, last year, the JAB reportedly gave 18 bonus marks to candidates who took the JEE Advanced because of printing and translation errors in the question paper. JAB officials stated that an online test will help prevent mistakes and also avert situations like these.

Last year, the CBSE had implemented a couple of changes in the JEE exam. No weightage is to be given for calculating the ranks in the JEE Examination. Candidates much have a minimum of 75 percents or sit in the top 20 percentile to qualify for admission to NITs, IITs and other CFTIs. The qualifying marks for SC/ST are 65 percent.

Students must be under 25 years of age to be eligible for the examination and for SC/ST, the age limit has been relaxed by five years. The CBSE has also made Aadhaar number mandatory for JEE Main, NEET and other examinations last year.

The dates for online mode for the JEE Main, which saw less than 10 percent students taking the computer-based examination last year, are yet to be announced.