A record 44 students scored 100 percentile, including 18 who secured the first rank, in the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) or JEE (Main)-2021, results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) late on Tuesday night, reporting a jump of 83% from last year when 24 students secured 100 percentile.
Officials cited an increase in the number of sessions for the exams as the reason for the record NTA scores. “Of the 939,008 candidates appearing in the exams, 252,954 took part in all four sessions. It increases the probability of more students scoring a 100 percentile,” an NTA official said.
NTA, which is a nodal agency to conduct various entrance exams in the county, said it has debarred 20 students from taking the exam for three years on account of using “unfair means”. The decision comes amid an ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged cases of “impersonification” and “misconduct” at some centres during the fourth session of the JEE (Mains), conducted from August 26 to September 2.
“On account of using ‘unfair means’, 20 candidates have been debarred from appearing in future examinations for a period of three years. Their results have also been withheld,” NTA said in a statement.
A senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said the nodal agency was also looking into the cases wherein the percentile has jumped “unrealistically” from one session to another.
“Results of around 400 students are under observation. These are the cases where the percentile has increased unrealistically from one session to another,” said the official.
For the first time, the JEE (Mains) was conducted in four sessions this year in order to offer more opportunities to students to improve their scores. While the first phase was conducted in February, the second phase was held in March. The third session, which was scheduled in April and May, got postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. It was later held between July and August.
The fourth phase, for which the results were announced on Tuesday night, was conducted on August 26, 27, 31 and September 1 and 2. Till last year, exams were conducted twice a year.
On Wednesday, a final merit list of best of four sessions was issued by the NTA. For candidates who appeared in more than one session, the best NTA score has been accounted for, the agency said.
According to the NTA, of the 44 who scored 100 percentile, seven students each are from Telangana and Delhi, six each from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, five from Maharashtra, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, and Punjab and one each are from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal and Chandigarh.
The rank has been allotted on the basis of the tie-breaking policy of the NTA.
“According to the policy, candidates with higher marks in Mathematics are given preference while allotting ranks. It is followed by an NTA score in Physics and then in Chemistry. If the scores still remain a tie, the candidate with a lesser ratio of negative to positive response will be preferred. It means the candidates who have attempted lesser wrong questions will be given preference,” said an NTA official.
Despite the introduction of four sessions, the JEE (Mains) this year saw a drop in overall registration.
Last year, 1,174,000 students had registered for the exams, of which 1,023,000 had appeared. This year, the number of registration came down to 1,048,012, with 939,008 appearing in the exams. A total of 658,000 male and 280,000 female candidates appeared in the exams this year. Last year, 715,000 male and 308,000 female candidates had appeared.
The JEE (Mains) is conducted for admissions to various engineering courses including the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology and other centrally funded technical colleges. Besides, it is also an eligibility criterion for the JEE (Advanced) exams for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs). Registration process for the JEE (Advanced), which will be conducted on October 3, started on Wednesday.
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