Modified JEE Mains 2017 could become six-hour exam of 720 marks by 2017

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains examination may become a six-hour exam worth 720 marks from 2017 on.

According to recommendations of the JEE (Main) Apex Board (JAB), the six-hour, 720 marks exam will be divided in two parts of three hours, each comprising of 355 - 360 marks. This will help in giving All India Ranks (AIR) to more than 40,000 engineering aspirants.

"The total marks will be 720 and this will give a better scope of giving AIR to 40,000+ students," stated a report submitted to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Currently, there is one paper of 360 marks.

The JAB also recommended that the exam be conducted twice a year, in December and April.

The board has also recommended that "the practice of adding 40 per cent marks from the respective boards may be discontinued due the difficulties in normalisation."

However, the board examination will remain significant as the candidates will have to be in the top 75 percentile or have at least 65 per cent marks (for smaller boards) to be eligible for admission.

In 2016 and 2017, JEE will continue to be a two-tier exam (JEE Mains and JEE Advanced) with minor modifications.

The recommendations were submitted to MHRD last year by a Committee of Eminent Persons (CEP), headed by Ashok Misra of IIT Roorkee.

Catch had previously reported that the HRD ministry is planning to introduce a new testing system/authority will be known as National Authority for Testing (NAT) for admissions to leading technical institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs).

Once approved by the Cabinet, the NAT will be implemented in October 2016, for admissions to the academic session of 2017.

Also Read: JEE exam to be scrapped; Get ready for NAT 2017

About three years ago, the JEE examination structure underwent a complete overhaul.

One of the chief reasons to change the entire structure is to reduce the aspirant's dependency on coaching centres - currently a Rs 24,000 crore industry.

In three points, the committee explains, "The purpose of education is refinement of the mind not passing an entrance examination".

"The second concerns the fact that 'all work and no play' makes a plus 12 grade student a dull individual with less involvement is activities other than studies".

"The third is that students are forced to waste a lot time commuting in order to avail the benefit of 'good' coaching."

The committee recommended that IITs should set a system for developing mock JEE exams, which could contain questions of last 50 years and more.