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Starting in 2018, the Govt has introduced 3 key changes in JEE Advanced which is one of the toughest entrance exams in the country for admission in the premier Indian Institutes of Technology and some other colleges.

Change 1 : Exam to be held only in online mode only

Starting 2018, the exam shall be held only in Online mode. This is the first time that the option of attempting the exam in pen-and-paper mode has been withdrawn. This decision of conducting the exam only in online mode had run into some controversy with students from Bihar opposing the move. However, the Govt has gone ahead and decided in favour of Online mode only.

Change 2 : Introduction of additional “Supernumerary” seats for Female candidates

A decision has been taken at the level of the IIT Council to, inter alia, improve the gender balance in the undergraduate programs at the IITs from the current (approximately) 8% to 14% in 2018-19 by creating supernumerary seats specifically for female candidates, without any reduction in the number of seats that was made available to non-female candidates in the previous academic year (i.e. academic year 2017-2018). Accordingly, to achieve this objective, and in accordance with the directions of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, supernumerary seats will thus be created and offered to female candidates for improving the gender balance in the undergraduate programs in IITs. These supernumerary seats will be offered (a) to only those female candidates who are declared qualified in JEE (Advanced) - 2018, and, (b) strictly based on the performance in JEE (Advanced) - 2018.

Change 3 : 4000 More Candidates To Be Eligible

As per notification dated 7 Oct 2017 released by IIT Kanpur (organizing institute for JEE-Advanced 2018), 4000 more students will be eligible to write JEE-Advanced in 2018. This effectively raises the number of such candidates from 2,20,000 to 2,24,000. Ad per the notice, “Candidates should be among the top 2,24,000 (including all categories) by scoring positive marks in Paper-1 of JEE (Main)-2018.” It is worthwhile to note that the number of students may in fact be a little over 2,24,000 owing to “tied” ranks/score in any category – as spelled out in the prospectus.

About the Author : Neelesh is the Co-founder at Opasis.com. He can be reached at neelesh@opasis.com

Keywords : JEE Advanced, IIT Admission Changes