The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the offline mode of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) on April 7, 2013. The online examination will be held on April 8 and 25. The board has decided that for admission to national institutes of technology (NITs) and centrally-funded technical institutions such as the Indian institutes of technology (IITs), the merit/rank will be based on 40% weightage to school board marks in Class 12 and 60% weightage to the JEE (Main).

The last date for applying online is December 15. The last date for receipt of the “confirmation receipt” at the JEE (Main) secretariat is December 26 (by registered/speed post only).

Paper one (physics, chemistry and mathematics) will be conducted in two modes - offline (pen and paper-based examination) and online. Paper two (mathematics, aptitude test and drawing test) of the JEE (Main) will be conducted in the offline mode.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Pradeep Singh, principal of Shamrock Christian Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, said, “The board’s decision to count 40% of the marks scored by students in Class 12 will make it tough for them to get admission to IITs. Now, it has become more important for students to score well in Class 12.”

Ankita Chaudhary, a Class-12 student in a private school here, said, “I am working very hard as I want to score more than 90% marks in Class-12 board exams. Only then do I stand a chance of getting admission in an IIT.”