Inter cut-off for IIT entry zooms by 30%

The cut-off marks for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology has zoomed by nearly 30 per cent this year, thanks to the new top-20 percentile norm introduced by the Centre. Only 1.24 lakh students have cleared the mark this year.

General category students must get over 89.81 per cent in the 10+2 exams, according to an analysis conducted by the Board of Intermediate Education.

The cut-off for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes was 84.34 per cent, Scheduled Tribes, 85.28 and other categories, 88.30 per cent.

Earlier, the mark was set at 60 per cent for general category students and 55 per cent for reserved category students in 10+2 exams.

To achieve the new cut-off level, general category students must score 476 marks out of 530 to qualify for IITs. The marks are 447 for Scheduled Castes students, 452 for the STs and 468 for other reserved categories.

Only 1.24 lakh students figure in the top-20 percentile list, out of the 3.7 lakh students who took the exam for the MPC stream in the Inter II year exams this year. Of the 1.24 lakh, 75,890 are from the general categories, 8,452 from SCs, 3,111 from STs and 36,626 from other reserved categories.

As per the fresh norms issued by the IITs, students have to appear for both JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced) for admission to IITs. The top-1,50,000 rankers in JEE (Main) will be allowed to appear for JEE (Advanced).

These top-1,50,000 rankers should also figure in the top-20 percentile list in the 10+2 board exams to be eligible for admission to IITs.

There is some confusion about what happens if a student secures higher marks in revaluation or recounting, and whether these marks are taken into account. It is common for many students to apply for revaluation or recounting of marks immediately after the results are announced.

“The CBSE, which has been conducting JEE (Main) and JEE (Advanced), has asked us to provide the final results by the end of May. Students can apply for recounting or re-verification of Inter answer scripts as usual. We will complete the process by May 20 and provide the final results to CBSE by taking into account the marks secured in revaluation/recounting also," said Ram Shankar Naik, secretary, BIE.