JEE aspirants question discrepancies in results

The IIT aspirants questioned the NTA over major variations in their percentiles across the tests that were conducted in 10 sessions starting January 27

Hyderabad: Students who appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2024 session-1 have flagged discrepancies in the way the National Testing Agency (NTA) arrived at the percentiles for candidates who appeared for the test in different sessions. The results of the paper 1 (BE/BTech) JEE Main 2024 session 1 were released on Tuesday.

The IIT aspirants questioned the NTA over major variations in their percentiles across the tests that were conducted in 10 sessions starting January 27. Pointing out the huge difference in the marks in comparison to percentile secured, the aspirants said there was a difference of 82 marks for 99 percentile.

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For instance, for candidates who appeared for an exam on January 27, students said a candidate’s percentile is determined on the 99 percentile of the candidate who secured 233 marks in that particular session.

However, candidates who appeared on January 31 had a lesser benchmark of 151 marks (99 percentile) and they were more in advantage position in comparison with candidates who took the test on January 27.

“A candidate securing 120 marks on January 31 will be in a more advantageous position with 93 percentile when compared with a candidate who appeared on January 27 who secured 90 percentile for the same 120 marks secured,” an aspirant said.

The students claimed that discrepancies occurred due to improper number of candidates allotted per session. They lamented that these differences have caused irreparable loss to the batch of candidates who took the exam on January 27. This, according to aspirants, would result in their disqualification to attend JEE Advanced even though they secured more marks as the cut-off to attend JEE Advanced was based on percentile in the JEE Main.

Students said there was no official statement or corrective action from NTA. “I feel the JEE Main is reduced to a matter of luck instead of talent,” said Keerthana, an aspirant.