New marking scheme surprises IIT-JEE aspirants

A different marking scheme and format for the JEE Advanced paper caught students off guard on Sunday. They were surprised to find negative markings introduced for several questions, and removed from others.

A different marking scheme and format for the Joint Entrance Exam Advanced (JEE Advanced) paper caught students off guard on Sunday.

JEE-Advanced is the second level exam for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) aspirants. Around 1.27 lakh candidates who cleared JEE-Main were eligible to appear for the exam.

Students were surprised to find negative markings introduced for several questions, and removed from others.

“It was a tough paper and the different marking scheme made it more difficult,” said Aditya Kale, who was among the high scorers in JEE-Main.

“It was quite a surprise. But you have to be prepared for changes and deal with it,” said Palak Jain, another JEE-Main high scorer.

Most said questions were challenging in all subjects - Maths, Physics, Chemistry. One coaching institute reported two minor errors that weren't confirmed.

“The exam pattern keeps changing,” said HC Gupta, chairperson, JEE 2013. “The exam went off very smoothly. Nothing was out of syllabus.”

Cut-offs, however, could drop. “It should not be difficult for serious, focused student to sail through,” said RL Trikha, director, coaching institute FIITJEE.