New Delhi: The National Testing Agency has announced decision to withdraw the optional questions that were introduced by Section B of the Joint Entrance Examination, or JEE Main, which is returning to the previous format before the coronavirus pandemic. The optional questions had been included during the pandemic when students were not able to engage in regular academic activities. Now, NTA wants to test the candidates to garner a complete grasp of concepts associated with numbers.
In the JEE Main BE/BTech entrance examination, the question paper comprises two sections namely, Section A and Section B. Questions in Section A are given as multiple-choice questions, while Section B consists of numerical value-based questions. The types of questions, in Section B, the candidate has to attempt 5 out of 10 and for all answers, the correct integer value needs to be provided for all of them. All the answers to the above question must be rounded off to the nearest integer. Every correct answer of Section B carries four marks and one mark is deducted for every wrong response, however, for evaluation JEE Main scores will be same at 300 marks.
What new pattern can do…
In the new JEE Main examination pattern, flexibility of optional questions is being missed by students. Now on the other hand, they have all ten numerical questions for which they need to be prepared and thereby take all the syllabus very meticulously. Since all the questions in Section B are compulsory, it tests the whole comprehension of the concept not only in the students but also adds a very important layer of stress to the task because students can no longer strategize based on their strengths or weaknesses.
But whether it’s the toughest or the easiest concept, students would have to mug up all the chapters absolutely because any topic can appear. Changes could be huge in JEE Main cut-off marks because now all the questions of Section B are compulsory. Absence of optional questions may leave students with less high overall scores and that would hamper the overall sectional and category cut-off.
Stress mounts for students
The sudden shift in the pattern of the JEE Main exam raises a question on the timing of the NTA. In just about less than three months to go for the exams of the January 2025 session of JEE Main, many students have already appeared in multiple mock tests and got tuned to the new pattern that had seen the light of the day during the pandemic. This change in pattern now leaves them scrabbling to revise their strategy and adjust to this new pattern of alignment that may impact on their performance. The move by the NTA is to make academic standards quite rigorous. Many, however, believe that if this change had been announced at the commencement of the academic year, students would have been able to prepare better with lesser anxiety. In such a situation, the students are under pressure to adjust their approach quickly since there is little time for the change in format.
This is because the students have reached the final stages of preparation; it’s more of an obstacle rather than an academic advantage. The step may prove a slight setback for cut-off marks specifically already strapped ones faced with the pressures of the highly competitive examination. Lastly, as laudable as the NTA’s proposal might be considering it is the only entry option to India’s elite institutions headed by IITs, the decision’s implementation and timing could have been executed in a manner that was less insensitive to the various challenge students are faced with.
The NTA has announced that the online registration process for JEE Main 2025 January session will begin soon. Aspirants are now eagerly waiting for the information bulletin of JEE Main 2025 to check the detailed pattern of examination.
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