The number of candidates who have cleared the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced to secure admission in the reputed Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) of the country is the lowest in 2018, over the last seven years, reported The Indian Express.
The results of the exam were announced on Sunday, 10 June, with Pranav Goyal from Panchkula in Haryana bagging the top rank, scoring 337 marks out of 360. Kota's Sahil Jain secured the second rank, while Delhi's Kailash Gupta got the third spot.
A total of 1,55,158 students appeared for the examination on 20 May, out of which only 18,138 made the cut. In 2017, over 51,000 students had cleared the exam.
IIT Kanpur, which organised the JEE Advanced in 2018, attributed the dip in the number of over-all successful candidates to an error-free question paper, which ultimately led to the lack of need for grace marks.
“The JEE-Advanced this year was completely free of errors, which is why no grace marks were awarded. Grace marks end up pushing in more aspirants into the qualifying list,” Professor Shalabh told The Indian Express.
Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar congratulated the successful candidates and asked the others not to lose their heart for not clearing the exams.
Since there had been changes in the eligibility criteria of the test in 2013, the number of candidates who have qualified has always been at least twice the total seats on offer. However, the number of qualified students – 18,138 – is still 1.6 times the number of seats on offers, the newspaper reported.
But the IITs are confident that the 11,279 seats which is on offer will be filled up even this year, despite the dip in the numbers.
Last year, though 51,000 candidates made the cut, the last rank at which a seat was allotted was less than 14,000. So, with over 18,000 candidates, filling up seats should not be a problem even this year.Professor Aditya Mittal, chairman of JEE-Advanced at IIT-Delhi to Indian Express
With the results out, seat allocation is scheduled to begin from 15 June. The selected candidates will obtain admission into undergraduate courses, which will help in obtaining a bachelors, integrated masters or bachelor-master dual degree in engineering, sciences or architecture.
Aspirants can attempt JEE (Advanced) for a maximum of two times in two consecutive years.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and PTI.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)