JEE Mains (Joint Entrance Examination Mains) is the entrance examination held by NTA (National Testing Agency) for admission to various undergraduate engineering courses such as B.Tech, B.Arch etc in different streams across various technical institutes of India i.e. IITs, NITS, Centrally Funded and Government-funded Technical Institutes.
The eligibility criteria for JEE Mains 2023 has been released by the conducting authority (NTA) and the details of which are as follows:
- Nationality: The candidate must be a citizen of India. However, NRIs, OCIs and POIs can also apply.
- Age: There’s no age limit for JEE Mains examination. However, the candidates must consider the age criteria of the institute they wish to take admission to.
- Candidates who have passed their Class 12th in 2021, 2022 or appearing for their Class 12th Boards this year 2023 are only eligible to apply. Candidates who appeared for their Class 12th Board exams in 2010 or before or those appearing in 2024 cannot apply for JEE Mains this year.
- Identification proof: Aadhar card is not mandatory as the candidate can produce any valid government issued ID proof such as Passport, Voter’s Card, ration Card etc.
- Qualification criteria:The applicant must have scored at least 75% marks in Class 12th from a recognised board. They should have qualified Class 12th exam in minimum 5 subjects with Physics and Mathematics as compulsory subjects. The reserved category (SC/ST/OBC) have a relaxation of 10% in the marks criteria and are required to attain at least 65% marks in their Class 12th Board examination.
- List of Qualifying Examinations: Apart from Class 12th Board examination, a candidate can also apply for JEE Mains if he/she has qualified any one of the following examinations:
- Intermediate or two-year Pre-University examination conducted by a recognized Board/ University.
- Final examination of the two-year course of the Joint Services Wing of the National Defence Academy.
- Senior Secondary School Examination conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling with a minimum of five subjects.
- Any Public School/ Board/ University examination in India or any foreign country is recognized as equivalent to the 10+2 system by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
- Higher Secondary Certificate Vocational Examination.
- A Diploma recognized by AICTE or a State board of technical education of at least 3 years duration.
- General Certificate Education (GCE) examination (London/Cambridge/Sri Lanka) at the Advanced (A) level.
- High School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge University or International Baccalaureate Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Office, Geneva.
- Candidates who have completed the Class 12 (or equivalent) examination outside India or from a Board not specified above should produce a certificate from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to the effect that the examination they have passed is equivalent to the Class 12 Examination.
- In case the Class 12 Examination is not a public examination, the candidate must have passed at least one public (Board or Pre-University) examination earlier.
- Number of attempts: An applicant can apply for JEE Mains for 3 years consecutively. And since there are 2 sessions each year, a candidate can attempt for JEE Mains for a total of 6 times, i.e. 2 attempts for 3 years.
- State Code of Eligibility: For registration to the examination, the candidates need to fill in their State Code of Eligibility i.e. the code of the state from where they have passed their Class 12th or equivalent qualifying examination. However, there are certain rules to determine the state code of eligibility-
- The State Code of Eligibility does not depend on one’s residence or native place. It is the code from the state where one has cleared the qualifying examination. For example, a candidate residing in Chandigarh appearing for the Class 12th Examination in Punjab will have the state code as that of Punjab and not as Chandigarh.
- A candidate qualifying the Class 12th examination from one state but appearing for improvement from another state will have its State code as the first state from which the 12th examination was passed and not the one where the candidate appeared for improvement.
- For NIOS Students, State code depends on the state where the study centre is located.
- For Indian nationals qualifying from Nepal/Bhutan, the state code will be selected on the basis of their permanent residence in India.
- Eligibility criteria for B.Arch and B.Planning as per COA (for institutes other than NITs, IITs and CFTIs):
- B.Arch: Candidate must have passed Class 12th from a recognised board with a minimum of 50% marks with 50% in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics subjects.
- B.Plan: Candidate must have passed Class 12th from a recognised board with a minimum of 50% marks in Mathematics as a compulsory subject.
If you are eligible and wish to apply for the January session of JEE Mains, the application form for the same has been released and is available at the official website of NTA www.nta.ac.in