A.P. tops list of JEE (Advanced) qualifiers

To make the 20 percentile cut, students have to work harder than those from other States. Students gaining eligibility for JEE (Advanced) will also have to figure among the top 20 percentile of those who passed their Intermediate exams this year.

The State continued its dominance in the IIT-JEE (Main) this year with 21,818 candidates gaining eligibility for the next stage of the exam – the JEE (Advanced). Around 1.5 lakh students attempted the exam for entry into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology.

After Andhra Pradesh, the second highest contribution came from Uttar Pradesh, from where 19,409 candidates gained eligibility, followed by Rajasthan (16,867), sources said.

The numbers from A.P. rose significantly compared to last year, when only 18,242 qualified for the JEE (Advanced). Around 3,600 students from Andhra Pradesh were admitted to the IITs last year.

Students gaining eligibility for JEE (Advanced) will also have to figure among the top 20 percentile of those who passed their Intermediate exams this year.

Despite good marks in the JEE Main, students still have to work harder than their peers in other State Boards in the country to figure in the top 20 percentile.

As per 2012 year figures, students had to score more than 87.20 per cent, while their peers in Meghalaya had to score just 49.90 per cent to figure in top 20 percentile and gain eligibility for JEE (Advanced).

Last year, the cut-off mark for figuring in the top 20 percentile varied in each category. For the General Category, it was 457 marks and 446 for OBCs, it was 417 for SCs and 426 for ST candidates. This year, the cut-offs are likely to come down as there has been a general decline in the marks scored in physics and chemistry.

Not our job: BIE

Meanwhile, officials of the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) said that they would not calculate their percentile but handover the data to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) officials for the job.

“It is their job,” BIE Secretary Rama Sankara Naik said. Last year, the BIE had calculated the percentile and sent the list of eligible candidates to CBSE, but it faced embarrassing moments when students who lost out moved court questioning the BIE’s methodology.

Late in the game

Interestingly, the ‘top-20 percentile’ eligibility factor will come into play only during the time of admissions, and not when students write the JEE-(Advanced).

So students may end up writing the JEE (Advanced), but may not be eligible for IIT admissions despite a good performance, if they don’t figure in the top 20 percentile!