1,500 challenge IIT’s JEE-Main, results expected on Tuesday

After having been given time till May 2 to officially submit challenges, around 1,500 students sent in challenges on their Joint Entrance Exam- Main (JEE-Main) answer sheets this year. Bhavya Dore reports.

After having been given time till May 2 to officially submit challenges, around 1,500 students sent in challenges on their Joint Entrance Exam- Main (JEE-Main) answer sheets this year.

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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducted the exam, had put up scanned images of students' answer sheets for viewing between April 30 and May 2. Students could complain if they felt that the responses they had marked were different from the ones the board had recorded.

The JEE-Main is the first level test for entry into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and also determines admissions to the National Institutes of Technology as well as other centrally funded institutes.

The challenge option was available to the nine-lakh odd students who had appeared for the pen-paper version of the test on April 7, but not for the 1.5-lakh odd candidates who appeared for the computer-based test on subsequent dates.

"We are studying the challenges and will be taking decisions on a case by case basis," said Vineet Joshi, chairperson of the CBSE.

While students had complained about errors and ambiguities in the questions appearing in the exam paper, the challenge process is concerned only with the answer sheets. The CBSE has not said if it will be cancelling any questions or awarding grace marks, as the IITs had done last year after the paper was confirmed to have seven marks worth of errors.

Those who gave the computer-based test did not have the challenge option because "the recorded responses on the computer are the same as those marked by the candidates", said the public notice issued last week.

The results date has not been confirmed, but Joshi said they would be out by Tuesday. He said students would get their score and whether or not they have qualified for the next round: the JEE-Advanced. There will not be any rankings for the JEE-Main results. The candidates in the top 1.5 lakh on the exam list will be eligible to for the JEE-Advanced.