Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is conducted for admission in various engineering colleges and courses all over the country. JEE is an all India common engineering entrance examination of the objective pattern. Internationally it is known as one of the most challenging engineering admission tests.
JEE consists of two parts, JEE Main and JEE Advanced. For admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs), JEE Advanced is being conducted every year.
And, JEE Main exam is for admission to National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs).
Only the students selected in JEE Mains are eligible for appearing in JEE Advanced. Almost 200,000 students are selected each year.
In 2012, the government-run Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that earlier conducted the AIEEE, announced this common examination that replaced the AIEEE and IIT-JEE.
As the basis of admission in some institutes like the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, and the Indian Institute of Science which use the score obtained in JEE Advanced. These are not participating institutes of central IIT JEE Advanced counselling of which all IITs are the member. Student cannot appear for the JEE-Advanced exam in the next year if any student already takes admission to IITs. But this is not the case with IISc, IISER, RGIPT and other institutes as these institutes only use JEE Advanced score for admission.
The decision of Joint Admission Board for two phase of JEE pattern has been approved by the IIT Council in the year 2013.
Joint Seat Allocation Authority 2015 (JoSAA 2015) conducted the joint admission process for a total of 19 IITs, 32 NITs, 18 IIITs and 19 other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs).
This year, CBSE will conduct JEE Main 2017 written exam on April 2, 2017, while the Computer Based Test (CBT) will be held on April 8 and April 9, 2017.
The top 2,20,000 candidates from JEE Mains 2017 will be eligible to take JEE Advanced 2017. For the admission year 2016-17, CBSE had filtered the top 2 lakh candidates for appearing in JEE Advanced, the second stage of the entrance exam for admissions to IITs. All aspiring candidates (except candidates from Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir) of JEE Main will mandatorily need Aadhaar card number to fill in JEE Main 2017 online application form.
In 2017, IIT Madras has been selected to conduct JEE Advanced. The JEE Advanced examination will be held on May 21, 2017. All India Ranks will not be calculated with the normalised scores of class 12th marks. CBSE has decided to do away with the class 12th normalised marks, which were used to calculate the All India Ranks of the JEE Main - up to 2016. The new eligibility criteria introduced by CBSE means that an aspirant will not be able to submit online applications for JEE Main unless the candidates provide their AADHAAR number.
The JEE pattern has undergone many changes. Since 2010 candidates are given paper copies of their answers, and cut-offs are announced. Since 2013-14, JEE has changed a lot and recently adopted new online admissions and application selection procedures which were not available in recent years.
Earlier, counselling for JEE main was conducted through CSAB but now officials have made changes in the counselling procedure. The JAB (Joint Admission Board), representing IITs and CSAB (Central Seat Allocation Board), are making agreements on the behalf of NITs and other CFTIs, and are now united to conduct a counselling (common counselling) for the two exams of JEE. The memo for the same was signed on May 2, 2015. These two together will be known as the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA).
The JEE Board of conduct refreshes the pattern of the examination every year. This dynamic nature is built to ensure the merit-based selection and genuineness of the entrance test. This is also done to oppose the coaching culture widely followed as a means of preparation for this exam. To further clarify the process of admission by merit, JEE Admission Board plans to replenish the exam structure from 2017. As per decisions are taken in December 2015-February 2016, JEE 2017 onwards will comprise a compulsory 'Science Aptitude Test' as the first phase of the exam and then the final objective paper as the rank-decider. JAB bets that this aptitude test cannot be gamed by coaching institutes and thereby is a true merit process of selection.