A total of 43 students, including one female candidate, have scored a perfect 100 percentile, almost double from last year, in the Joint Entrance Examination (Main). Due to this, the cut-offs for JEE (Advanced) have also increased this year.

The results were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday. According to the NTA, the cut-offs for JEE (Advanced) for general category is 90.77, up from 88.41 last year. For those in the economically weaker section (EWS) category, it is 75.62, much higher than 63.11 last year. For OBC/SC/ST categories it is 73.61, 51.97 and 37.23, up from last year’s 67, 43.08 and 26.77.

Candidates must be among the top 2.5 lakh successful candidates of JEE (Main) to appear for JEE (Advanced). Only candidates who meet the cut-offs for JEE (Advanced) can appear for it. The registrations for JEE (Advanced) will start from April 30.

There was a significant increase in the number of students scoring 100 percentile this year as compared to last year, when only 24 students got a perfect score. In 2021, the number of students with 100 percentile was 44, which was attributed to the exam being conducted in four sessions instead of two in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

University Grants Commission chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar attributed the hike this year to students being able to prepare well, as the pandemic years are over.

“Perhaps, students are preparing increasingly well now that Covid is past us. However, we need to observe this over a few years to come to a firm conclusion,” Kumar said.

The JEE (Main) is held in two sessions. This year, the first session was held in January while the second session was conducted in April. According to NTA data, out of the 43 candidates who scored 100 percentile, 11 are from Telangana (the highest from a state), five each from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, four from Uttar Pradesh, three each from Karnataka and Gujarat, two each from Maharashtra and Delhi while one each from Haryana, Chandigarh, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Out of these, only one female candidate, Ridhi Kamlesh Kumar Maheshwari from Karnataka scored 100 percentile. Last year, two female students had scored the perfect percentile. Of the total candidates, who secured 100 percentile, seven are from other backward class non-creamy layer (OBC-NCL) category, three are those from economically weaker section (EWS) category while one student is from scheduled caste (SC) category.

Students from scheduled tribes (ST) and persons with disabilities (PWD) categories did not feature in the top scorer list. Five students each from these categories landed the next best, 99 percentile (with a difference in points for each).

The JEE (Main) exam is conducted for admissions to various engineering institutions and courses, including centrally-funded technical colleges/universities, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IITs). Besides, this exam is an eligibility criterion for JEE (Advanced) test, based on which admission to the premier IITs is secured.

There was an increase in the number of overall registrations for the exam. A total of 11,62,398 students registered for JEE (Main), of which 11,13,325 appeared. Last year, 10,26,799 students had registered, of which 9,05,590 appeared for the exam.

A total of 7,74,359 males while 3,38,963 female candidates took the exam this year. Last year, this figure stood at 6,48,555 males and 2,57,031 females. The NTA has withheld the result of 15 candidates on account of using “unfair means”.

The JEE (Main) was conducted at 457 centres across 325 cities, including 23 cities outside India, including Toronto, Beijing, Dubai and Singapore among others. For the first time, centres were set up at Brasilia, Toronto, Berlin, Paris and Oslo.

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