JEE Advanced 2018 to be Held on May 20; Exam Might Go Online

In a recently held meeting at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, the exam date for JEE Advanced 2018 has been finalized. As per the reports, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided to conduct the exam on May 20, 2018. Even last year, the examination was held on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

The meet was on Sunday, September 17, 2017.  It was headed by JEE Advanced Organising Chairman, Prof Shalabh, and JAB Chairman, Prof Indranil Manna. Prof Shalabh confirmed the exam date to the press. The dates will also be uploaded on the official website in due course of time.

This year, IIT-JEE will be organized by IIT Kanpur, with the assistance of South, West, East, North, Central, North-East, and North-Central Zonal IITs. Until now, the examination was held in pen and paper mode. However, due to the errors in the offline question paper and due to the possibility of malpractice, JAB is considering to change the mode of the exam to online.

“The online version of the test will make logistics easier and the evaluation process more accurate. It will also take care of security issues because there will be no scope for question paper leaks,” said a senior official of MHRD.

The final decision regarding the pattern of the exam is expected to be taken in the coming 10 days. If the exam will be held online or computer based will also be determined then. If JEE Advanced goes online then the mistakes in the exam will definitely reduce.

Last year, the question paper had printing and translation errors. The students highlighted the matter in the court. After which, the SC directed IIT Madras to compensate candidates by awarding marks and submit an undertaking that the same will not repeat by IITs.

The online JEE Advanced will also allow quick and exact assessment of the answer sheet. The students will be able to know their score and merit within less duration. The printing costing of the exam will also drop. The students will be benefited the most, as they will be able to change their answer which they cannot do once the bubble in OMR is circled. “Students were unable to correct their answers after bubbling the answers,” said Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director IIT Madras.

IITs have also disclosed that even in past they did consider going online with JEE Advanced but were not sure of organizing it effectively. Now that more than more than 2 lakh candidates take the examination one sitting, JAB is pondering to go online.

The initial step to appear for JEE Advanced is JEE Main. It is conducted by CBSE, in pen and paper and computer based mode in the month of April. Until now, only the top 2.2 lakh qualifiers of Main are allowed to appear for the Advanced examination. The registration for JEE Main will begin in December 2017 and for JEE Advanced the candidates will be able to apply in the month of April 2018.