Admission criteria to Undergraduate Engineering Programs at NITs, IIITs, Other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions, Institutions funded by participating State Governments, and other Institutions shall include the performance in the class 12/equivalent qualifying Exam and in the Joint Entrance Examination, JEE (Main).

The Paper-1 (B. E./B. Tech.) of JEE (Main) will also be an eligibility test for the JEE (Advanced), which the candidate has to take if is aspiring for admission to the undergraduate programmes offered by the IITs.

JEE Main exam has two papers, Paper-1 and Paper-2. Candidates may opt for either or both of them. Both papers contain multiple choice questions. Paper 1 is for admission to B.E./B.Tech courses. It is conducted both online and offline. Paper-2 is for admission in B.Arch and B.Planning courses. It is conducted offline only.

JEE Main has a fixed exam structure.

The paper-1 is of three hours duration and consists of thirty multiple choice (single-correct) questions in each of the three subjects (physics, chemistry and maths).

There is negative marking for incorrect answers. 4 marks are awarded for correct answers and 1 mark is deducted for incorrect answers.

1.3 million Candidates appeared for JEE Main in 2014. In 2016, JEE Main was conducted on 3 April 2016 (offline mode) and April 9 and April 10, 2016 (online mode).

Results for JEE Main 2016 exam was declared on April 27, 2016 on their official websites.

Number of Applicants by Year

The number of applicants taking the JEE Main has varied over the years.

In 2016, fewer aspirants registered as compared to the previous three years as shown in the table below:

Year No. of Students
2016 1,250,000
2015 1,300,000
2014 1,350,000
2013 1,400,000

CBSE and CSAB are two different and independent boards. CBSE conducts JEE (Main) exam and publishes the merit list. CSAB only uses the merit list published by CBSE for seat allocation purposes.

In previous years the admission process was conducted through CCB (Central Counseling Board), while in 2016 CCB has been renamed as CSAB (Central Seat Allocation Board) for completing the seat allocation process.