JEE Main 2020 is underway with conclusion of registration for the April session. Most of the students are worried about filling all the details carefully in the JEE Main Application Form and ensuring that they feel the desired eligibility criteria to avoid rejection. A lot of candidates search for top 20 percentile cutoff marks in JEE Main.
The list of top 20 percentile for each board will be published on the official site by JoSAA. The top 20 percentile cut off marks will be released after class 12th exams of participating boards. Board exams for 12th Class are scheduled for March 2020. Boards have an important value because you need to be in the top 20 percentile of scores cut off.
The top 20 percentile 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 about the previous year trends.
What is the top 20 percentile?
Each year as many as a million of students appear for JEE and NIT entrance examinations with the view of gaining admission in top engineering institutes. Even though the marks secured in Class 12th is no longer considered for JEE Main Rank Calculation, yet it is a determining factor for admission to IITs, NITs, IIITs and CFTIs. However, not all the state education boards release marks in the form of percentage. Therefore, the organizing authority will also consider candidates failing in the top 20 percentile while determining their eligibility.
What is the Eligibility Criteria
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–
So, if you aspire to clear the gain admission to any of the IITs through the JEE Advanced examination, you either –
- Candidates need to score at least 75% marks (for general candidates) in your class XII school examinations. The required percentile for SC/ST/PwD) candidates is 65% in this case.
- You need to be of the top 20- percentile scorers in the class XII board examinations in either the General or the SC/ST/PwD categories, based on the category you belong to.
This raises the question of, what are the minimum marks a candidate needs to score in the Class XII board examinations, in order to be eligible to get admission into the IITs? This article discusses this in detail.
Check JEE Main Eligibility Criteria
The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) which is in charge of the seat allocation to government-funded technical institutes, releases the top 20 percentile cut-off list, for all the state boards, for the class 12 examinations each year.
The list for 2018 was released in 2019 and in this article, we shall share the JEE Main cut off for 2018, 2017 and 2016.
How is the Top 20 Percentile Cut off of the class 12th Board examinations for IIT Admission calculated?
Before getting into the list of the state-wise class XII board cut off marks, it is important to understand how these cut off marks are calculated –
This is done in the following ways –
- In order to calculate the top 20 percentile for different class 12 board examinations, held separately by each state board, the marks scored in 5 subjects – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, any language, any other subject other than the previous four – are all taken into account.
- If a student has appeared in more than 1 language paper, the language paper with the higher marks shall be taken into consideration.
- Similarly, if a student has studied more than the 5 subjects mentioned above, the subject in which he/she has scored more shall be considered.
- If the marks in a subject are not allotted out of 100, then the total marks for a subject shall be raised up or down, to 100 so that the total aggregate marks totals to 500.
- In case a student appears in the class XII board exam of 2017 and passes the exam, but reappears in a few subjects for the class XII board exams held in 2018, then the top 20 percentile cut-off for 2017 shall be taken into account.
- But if the student appears in the class XII board exam of 2017 and then reappears in all the papers in the class XII boards of 2018, then this student’s better of the two years’ top 20 percentile, shall be considered.
- So if a student wants to reappear 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.
Rules for calculation of Class 12th marks for admission into IITs
The score will be calculated as follows:-
- Marks of an applicant will be considered for any 5 subjects. 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
- 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 2018 and reappears for any one or two subjects in 2019, then 2018’s marks will be considered
- If a candidate appeared for Class 12 exam in 2018 but reappears for all 5 exams in 2019, then the more scores out of both year will be considered
Difference Between Percentage and Percentile
Often candidates get obscured of the difference between a percentage score and percentile. However, both the 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. This is the mark 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.
The following tables show the top 20 percentile cut off marks for the central and each of the different state boards in India. These figures are for the years 2018, 2017 and 2016. There are some cases in which the figures were not available and have been marked as “NA”.
Top 20 percentile cut-off for CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 432 | 424 | 410 | 390 | 390 |
| 2017 | 431 | 420 | 400 | 385 | 385 |
| 2016 | 430 | 414 | 395 | 376 | 376 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for ISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 438 | 427 | 415 | 387 | 387 |
| 2017 | 427 | 408 | 391 | 366 | 366 |
| 2016 | 443 | 427 | 412 | 388 | 388 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for National Institute of Open Schooling –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 337 | 321 | 318 | 326 | 318 |
| 2017 | 443 | 427 | 412 | 388 | 388 |
| 2016 | 351 | 388 | 334 | 332 | 332 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Maharashtra Board (Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 361 | 362 | 343 | 340 | 340 |
| 2017 | 343 | 344 | 326 | 323 | 323 |
| 2016 | 348 | 341 | 325 | 319 | 319 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Gujarat Board (Gujarat Secondary Education Board) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 342 | 321 | 308 | 284 | 284 |
| 2017 | 367 | 344 | 336 | 309 | 309 |
| 2016 | 363 | 339 | 331 | 304 | 304 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Rajasthan Board (Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 384 | 385 | 369 | 361 | 361 |
| 2017 | 401 | 403 | 385 | 379 | 379 |
| 2016 | 392 | 386 | 371 | 365 | 365 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Goa Board (Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 365 | 350 | 348 | 341 | 341 |
| 2017 | 370 | 357 | 336 | 316 | 316 |
| 2016 | 361 | 336 | 347 | 333 | 333 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Madhya Pradesh Board (Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 401 | 394 | 379 | 362 | 362 |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 395 | 385 | 369 | 356 | 356 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Chhattisgarh Board (Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 374 | 380 | 362 | 355 | 355 |
| 2016 | 360 | 362 | 338 | 337 | 337 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Karnataka Board (Karnataka Board of Pre-University Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 432 | 419 | 359 | 379 | 359 |
| 2017 | 419 | 400 | 346 | 360 | 346 |
| 2016 | 435 | 409 | 377 | 386 | 377 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Kerala Board (Kerala Board of Public Examinations) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 446 | 425 | 400 | 396 | 396 |
| 2016 | 427 | 358 | 380 | 366 | 358 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Tamil Nadu Board (Tamil Nadu Board of Higher Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 425 | 431 | 392 | 383 | 383 |
| 2016 | 436 | 399 | 356 | 345 | 345 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Andhra Board (Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education)–
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 468 | 464 | 450 | 447 | 447 |
| 2017 | 474 | 470 | 457 | 452 | 452 |
| 2016 | 470 | 457 | 442 | 439 | 439 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Telangana Board (Telangana Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 471 | 469 | 457 | 461 | 457 |
| 2017 | 467 | 464 | 454 | 456 | 454 |
| 2016 | 475 | 460 | 445 | 449 | 445 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for UP Board (Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 338 | 325 | 314 | 313 | 313 |
| 2017 | 355 | 344 | 331 | 337 | 331 |
| 2016 | 405 | 395 | 381 | 387 | 381 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Uttaranchal Board (Uttaranchal Shiksha evam Pariksha Parishad) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 341 | 323 | 309 | 310 | 309 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Haryana Board (Haryana Board of Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 406 | 400 | 383 | 303 | 303 |
| 2016 | 395 | 393 | 374 | NA | 374 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Punjab Board (Punjab School Education Board) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 374.45 | 375.55 | 364.45 | 361.1 | 361.1 |
| 2017 | 406 | 403 | 388 | 392 | 388 |
| 2016 | 415 | 410 | 401 | 397 | 397 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for HP Board (Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 402 | 394 | 390 | 389 | 389 |
| 2017 | 375 | 361 | 355 | 358 | 355 |
| 2016 | 397 | 385 | 380 | 379 | 379 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for J&K Board (Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 401 | 408 | 309 | NA | NA |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 409 | NA | NA | NA | 409 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 376 | 374 | 362 | 326 | 326 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Odisha Board (Odisha Council of Higher Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 331 | NA | 302 | 276 | 276 |
| 2016 | 310 | NA | 278 | 249 | 249 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Assam Board (Assam Higher Secondary Education Council) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 360 | 357 | 346 | 323 | 323 |
| 2017 | 364 | 359 | 348 | 300 | 300 |
| 2016 | 349 | 351 | 343 | 335 | 335 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Bihar Board (Bihar Intermediate Education Council) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 293 | 287 | 279 | 284 | 279 |
| 2017 | 313 | 307 | 300 | 303 | 300 |
| 2016 | 315 | 308 | 297 | 300 | 297 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Jharkhand Board (Jharkhand Academic Council) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 321 | 332 | 310 | 306 | 306 |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 303 | 310 | 288 | 281 | 281 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Manipur Board (Manipur Council of Higher Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 304 | 320 | 309 | 295 | 295 |
| 2017 | 443 | 427 | 412 | 388 | 388 |
| 2016 | 347 | 350 | 339 | 326 | 326 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Meghalaya Board (Meghalaya Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 345 | 326 | 295 | 312 | 295 |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 308 | 335 | 281 | 293 | 281 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Mizoram Board (Mizoram Board of School Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 364 | 301 | 337 | 346 | 301 |
| 2017 | 359 | 342 | 345 | 347 | 342 |
| 2016 | 369 | 427 | 314 | 336 | 314 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Tripura Board (Tripura Board of Secondary Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 343 | NA | 330 | 287 | 287 |
| 2017 | 348 | NA | 330 | 304 | 304 |
| 2016 | 299 | NA | 283 | 233 | 233 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Nagaland Board (Nagaland Board of School Education) –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | 381 | 371 | 349 | 340 | 340 |
| 2017 | 349 | 362 | 335 | 318 | 318 |
| 2016 | 333 | 311 | 321 | 295 | 295 |
The following are the top 20 percentile cut off marks for various universities and other schools offering technical courses –
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 416 | NA | NA | NA | 404 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 400 | NA | NA | NA | 400 |
| 2016 | 404 | NA | NA | NA | 404 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 469 | 418 | 452 | 378 | 378 |
| 2016 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Banasthali Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | 429 | 421 | 387 | NA | 387 |
| 2016 | 437 | 400 | 420 | 306 | 306 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Hyderabad –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 2018 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2017 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 2016 | 394 | 398 | 383 | 382 | 382 |
Top 20 percentile cut-off for Haryana Open School, Bhiwani –
| Year | GEN | OBC-NCL | SC | ST | PwD |
| 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.
