JEE Main 2020 was conducted recently amid the whole COVID-19 crisis and lockdown. This has also caused delay in JEE Main 2021 January session. The huge delay in exams have had a deep impact on the mental health of students. Many had been worried about 12th Percentage due to partial cancellation of exams. Top 20 Percentile rule is nothing but the creamy top 20 percent students who scored the highest in 12th CBSE Boards or an equivalent examination, who will be eligible for IITs and NITs and other JEE Main Participating Colleges.
HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has hinted towards an increase in the number of JEE Main 2021 attempts from 2 to either 3 or 4. Read More
The top 20 percentile criteria was scrapped for both JEE Main and JEE Advanced 2020. Same might be happening for JEE Main 2021.
However, JEE Main 2021 eligibility criteria has not been released yet.
While talking about the eligibility of JEE Main or JEE Advanced, it is clear that NTA (or IIT) doesn’t give weightage to class 12th marks in JEE Main Score Card.
Yet, teachers and parents force students to ensure a good percentage in class 12th boards.
This is because of the rule of top 20 percentile for JEE Main introduced way back for JEE Main Counselling. Let us discuss exactly what the top 20 percentile for JEE Main 2021 means.
Each year more than 9 lakh students appear for IIT-JEE or JEE Main and Advanced. The purpose is simple – admission in India’s Top Engineering Institutes.
The marks secured in Class 12th are not considered for JEE Main Rank calculation by NTA.
Yet, it is a determining factor for admission to IITs, NITs, IIITs and GFTIs. This is because of a hidden rule that these colleges follow.
Top 20 Percentile for JEE Main is nothing but the top 20 percent of the students of each board.
Given below is the cutoff for CBSE and ICSE, which might not reflect in your JEE Main Score Card, but is still required by top colleges-
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
418
405
382
355
355
2018
432
424
410
390
390
2017
431
420
400
385
385
2016
430
414
395
376
376
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for ICSE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
445
431
423
380
380
2018
438
427
415
387
387
2017
427
408
391
366
366
2016
443
427
412
388
388
The total marks scored by a student in the 12th boards or equivalent should make him/her fall in the top 20 percent of the scorers.
However, not all the education boards release marks in the form of rank or percentage. So, it is not possible to determine the top 20 percent scorers of that particular board.
Therefore, the organizing authority will also consider candidates not falling in the top 20 percentile while determining their eligibility.
JoSAA publishes the list of top 20 percentile cut off for JEE Main of each board on their official website. It releases the top 20 percentile cutoff marks after results of class 12th exams of participating boards. Hence, board exams have an important value because candidates need to be in the top 20 percentile cutoff scores.
The JEE Main cut off marks is released separately for IITs and other institutes (NITs, IIITs and CFTIs) on the official site, josaa.nic.in. Although the top 20 percentile is released after the result declaration, candidates must be aware of the previous year trends.
Students who wish to qualify for the IITs based on the JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria, need to meet any one of the following two requirements–
Either, candidates need to score at least 75% marks (for general category candidates) in your class XII board exams. The required percentage for SC/ST/PwD candidates is 65% in this case.
Or, candidates must be in the top 20 percent scorers in the class XII board exams in either General or SC/ST/PwD categories.
This raises a simple question. What are the minimum marks a candidate needs to score in class XII board exams? Can that qualify as eligibility to get admission into the IITs? This article discusses these questions in detail.
The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) is in charge of the seat allocation to government-funded technical institutes. JoSAA also releases the top 20 percentile cut-off list of all the state boards for the class 12 exams of each year. Do note that this cutoff is altogether different from JEE Main Cutoff.
The data of Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 is provided in this article below. Data for 2020 is not available because the top 20 percentile rule was scrapped for 2020.
How to Calculate Top 20 Percentile Cutoff?
Before getting in the state-wise cutoff of class XII board marks, it is important to understand how the Top 20 Percentile for JEE Main is calculated by JoSAA. Given below are the points over the calculation–
First, to calculate the top 20 percentile for different board exams of class 12th, we consider total marks. The marks of 5 subjects for top 20 percentile are taken – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Language, Additional subject – in aggregate.
JoSAA conducts separate calculations for each board’s cutoff. This means that a student of CBSE and a student of the state board are considered separately.
Also, if a student has appeared in more than 1 language paper, the language paper with higher marks will be taken into consideration.
Similarly, if a student has studied more than the 5 subjects mentioned above, the score of the top 5 subjects is considered.
If the marks in a subject are not out of 100, then the total marks for that subject will be proportionately calculated out of 100. So that the total aggregate marks totals to 500.
Let’s say a student appears in the class XII boards of 2020 and passes the exam. But reappears in a few subjects for the class XII board exams held in 2021. Then, the top 20 percentile for JEE Main 2020 will be taken into account.
If a student reappears in the next year for all the exams of class XII boards, then the better of two is taken into consideration.
Hence, if reappearing for the boards the next year, with the aim of improving their marks. They should appear in all the five papers instead of just a few.
Calculation of Class 12th Marks for Admission to IITs
The score will be calculated as follows-
Marks of an applicant will be considered for any 5 subjects for top 20 percentile for JEE Main. Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics are compulsory subjects.
Out of these 5 subjects, one language subject will be considered.
If a candidate has 2 language subjects, a subject with a higher score will be considered for the top 20 percentile cut off.
Further, if marks in any subject are not awarded out of 100, then such score will be scaled to make it out of 100. For example, if a candidate has scored 60 out of 80, his/her marks will be taken as – (60/80)*100 = 75
If a candidate appeared for Class 12 exam in the previous year and reappears for any one or two subjects in the current year, then previous year’s marks will be considered
If a candidate appeared for Class 12 exam in the previous year but reappears for all 5 exams in the current year, then the higher score out of both will get considered.
Often candidates get obscured of the difference between a percentage score and percentile. However, both terms are completely different from one another.
A percentage score is marks obtained by a candidate from the aggregate of 100.
On the other hand, a percentile is a term used to define the percentage a candidate secures below particular marks.
Example – Suppose a candidate has secured 85 percent marks. These are the marks secured out of 100, wherein he/she has scored 85. If the total is 200, it will be 170 and so on.
However, if a candidate mentions he/she has scored 85 percentile, that would mean 85 percent of all other candidates who have appeared for the examination have scored fewer marks than the candidate with 85 percentile.
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for JEE Main of Various Boards
The following tables show the JEE Main Top 20 Percentile cut off marks for the central and each of the different state boards in India. These figures are for the years 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016. You can also download the official PDF of Top 20 Percentile Cutoff of JEE Main 2019 to 2017. There are some cases in which the figures were not available and have been marked as “NA”.
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for National Institute of Open Schooling –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
337
325
325
323
323
2018
337
321
318
326
318
2017
443
427
412
388
388
2016
351
388
334
332
332
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff of Maharashtra HSC Board (Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
339
339
323
314
314
2018
361
362
343
340
340
2017
343
344
326
323
323
2016
348
341
325
319
319
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Gujarat Board (Gujarat Secondary Education Board) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
373
359
341
324
324
2018
342
321
308
284
284
2017
367
344
336
309
309
2016
363
339
331
304
304
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Rajasthan Board (Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
2018
384
385
369
361
361
2017
401
403
385
379
379
2016
392
386
371
365
365
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Goa Board (Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education) –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
375
362
360
361
360
2018
365
350
348
341
341
2017
370
357
336
316
316
2016
361
336
347
333
333
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Madhya Pradesh Board (Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education) –
The following are the top 20 percentile cutoff marks for various universities and other schools offering technical courses –
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2016
416
NA
NA
NA
404
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
400
NA
NA
NA
400
2016
404
NA
NA
NA
404
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
447
434
395
394
394
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
469
418
452
378
378
2016
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Banasthali Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
422
416
411
357
357
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
429
421
387
NA
387
2016
437
400
420
306
306
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Hyderabad –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2016
394
398
383
382
382
Top 20 Percentile Cutoff for Haryana Open School, Bhiwani –
Year
GEN
OBC-NCL
SC
ST
PwD
2019
NR
NR
NR
NR
NR
2018
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2017
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
2016
334
323
319
303
303
There are three national boards in JEE Main which are Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (ISC), and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). The CBSE and ISC have a higher cut off than NIOS.
FAQs
Q.When will the official JEE Main 2021 exam dates be announced?
Answer: NTA will soon release an official notification about the exam dates for JEE Main 2021.
Q.What is the syllabus for JEE Main 2021?
Answer: JEE Main 2021 syllabus will comprise topics from Class XI and Class XII. However, the official detailed syllabus will be released by NTA in the information brochure.
The February session of JEE Main 2021 has commenced today i.e. 23rd February. As per the official data, 6.60 lakh candidates have registered for February…
