JEE and NEET: All the latest updates

The schools and colleges shifted to online teaching but examinations remained a struggle during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Right now, we are facing a murky situation in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic. Almost every sphere of living is disturbed that includes conflicts, degradation of education up to some extent etc. One of the most important aspects of education that is affected is the conduction of examination. Many national and state level exams are cancelled or delayed because of the pandemic. For example, CBSE Class 12 exams which are conducted for around 1.3 million students every year, and several other entrance exams after Class 12 were also cancelled due to the leap in active cases of corona for the year 2021.

But now as the number of cases shows a decline, testing agencies probably will announce dates for entrance exams.

JEE NEET postponement shouldn’t be an excuse to postpone your preparations

Among all entrance exams, the most important ones to decide future engineers and doctors are JEE (Joint Entrance Exam: meant for the technical sector) and NEET (National Eligibility cum entrance test: meant for the medical sector) which are conducted by NTA (National testing agency) every year around January.

But in 2021 because of the corona pandemic, students are still waiting for the dates of both exams. Following factors are necessary to conduct these exams:

• Proper sanitation facilities in the exam centre
• Social distancing amidst aspirants must be taken into consideration
• Aspirants must wear a mask to avoid any sort of infection
• Government must ensure that every aspirant is fully vaccinated

Changed Eligibility Criteria 

Every year the eligibility for both NEET and JEE is:

1. NEET: Candidates must have passed class 12th with Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology along with English as his/her core subjects from a recognized board (CBSE, ICSE, RBSE etc.) with at least 50% marks (for general and OBC categories) and a relaxation of 5% for SC/ST category.

1. JEE: Candidates must have passed class 12th with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics along with language subject as his/her core subjects from a recognized board (CBSE, ICSE, RBSE etc.) with at least 75% marks (for general category) and a relaxation of 10% for SC/ST category.

But as far as this year 2021 is considered there are several changes in the eligibility criteria of these exams. These include:

1. NEET: Candidates must have passed class 12th with Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology along with English as his/her core subjects from a recognized board (CBSE, ICSE, RBSE etc.) with at least 50% marks (for general) and a relaxation of 10% for SC/ST and OBC category. There is no upper age limit for NEET 2021.
2. JEE: Candidates who will clear JEE Main 2021 have to show their class 12th passing certificate only. It will be considered irrespective of the score that is obtained by them.

Tentative Dates

This year it is possible that maybe exams will be conducted after the results of class 12. However, expected dates for the exams can be accounted below:

1. NEET: Expected date for NEET 2021 is August 1, 2021
2. JEE (Mains): It is also expected in August. However, no specified date is given and it all depends on the pandemic conditions.

What’s new?

1. NEET: No change in the pattern of the exam syllabus is made. An exam will be conducted in pen-paper mode only. An aspirant can sit for any number of attempts he/she wishes to, which is the same as that from the past 2 years.

1. JEE: Contrary to the speculations, no reduction in the syllabus was made. However, NTA decided to conduct 4 sessions of this exam this year in February, March, April and May but the last of these sessions got cancelled due to the high risk of corona infection.

Moreover, JEE-Mains 2021 will be taken in many regional languages like Tamil, Bengali and Odia etc. apart from English and Hindi. All these together constitute 13 languages.

The most important change is the revised pattern of the exam which is explained below:

• Papers will be having 2 choices
• 30 questions in each subject of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and these questions will be segmented into two sections
• Section ‘A’ will be having 20 questions while Section ‘B’ will constitute a total of 10 questions
• Students need to answer any 5 questions of Section ‘B’ and all the questions of Section ‘A’
• Total questions to be answered will remain the same which is 25 (Physics: 25; Chemistry: 25; Mathematics: 25)

Key Takeaways  

Both the exams can be announced very soon and because there is no reduction in the syllabus of the exams so students need to study properly and systematically. They should remain away from any sort of mental pressure in the form of depression or mood swings by following a healthy lifestyle so that their performance is not affected.

Also published on Medium.