JEE Mains answer key: Students in a fix

Four days after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced results of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains (Paper I), students are still unsure if the challenges sent by them have been accepted by the authorities. A number of students have also challenged the new answer key, which was published with the results.

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After the NTA released the answer key on January 15, many students raised objections and challenged some of the answers. On January 17, NTA released the results of the JEE Mains exam, which was held earlier this month, along with a new answer key, based on which marks were allotted. “Our expert committee considered the challenges, and only three of them were accepted. As per our rule, students were awarded extra marks for those questions, whether or not they attempted those,” said Vineet Joshi, director general, NTA.

Many students, however, have written to NTA pointing out errors in the second answer key. “Some students are still not happy because not all their challenges were accepted by the examination authority. What’s worse is that the students cannot check which questions they answered wrong as their answer booklet was not released by the NTA,” said Vinay Kumar, MD and CEO of a coaching institute.

Many students have now decided to attempt the second phase of JEE Mains in April 2020 to improve their score. “The competition is so fierce that every extra decimal in the percentile score can decide whether we make it for JEE Advanced or not; so we can’t take chances,” said Aniket Rathod, an applicant.