JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2021: Check Minimum Marks, Age Limit, No. of Attempts

IIT Kharagpur will release the JEE advanced 2021 eligibility criteria soon. Read below to know the eligibility criteria of JEE Advanced.

JEE Advanced 2021 Eligibility Criteria: In his recent interaction with students, Education Minister has announced that a minimum of 75% marks in class 12 is no more required by candidates to appear for JEE Advanced 2021 eligibility criteria.

IIT Kharagpur, the exam conducting authority, will soon release the detailed JEE Advanced 2021 eligibility criteria on the official website along with the application form and detailed information brochure. Candidates must meet the eligibility criteria of JEE Advanced 2021 to appear in the exam and seat allotment process.

JEE Advanced eligibility criteria are the conditions related to the qualifying exam, marks required and others that have to be met by every candidate for admissions into IITs through JEE Advanced. In case of failing to do so, candidates may get disqualified. Candidates can check the detailed information about JEE Advanced eligibility criteria 2021 in the article below. JEE Advanced 2021 exam eligibility entails that candidates must qualify Paper-1 of JEE Main 2021. Candidates who wish to take this exam have to fulfil certain criteria as fixed by JAB. The eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced 2021 is as follows:

1 – Performance in JEE Main 2021

Candidates who fall among the top 2,50,000 rankers in JEE Main 2021 across all categories are eligible to appear for JEE Advanced. Out of this number, the percentage of candidates eligible for admissions under different categories are as follows:

• General category candidates (from the common merit list) – 46.5% 
• General EWS – 4%
• OBC-NCL candidates – 27%
• SC candidates – 15% 
• ST candidates – 7.5%
• PWD candidates - Horizontal reservation of 5% in all the above categories

Candidates can check the category-wise distribution of candidates under JEE Advanced exam:

Note: The total number of candidates can be slightly greater than 2,50,000 in the presence of “tied” ranks/scores in any category.

2 – Age limit

• General or OBC-NCL category candidates born on or after October 1, 1996, can apply for the exam.
• However, the age limit for SC, ST or PwD category candidates has been relaxed. SC, ST or PwD candidates born on or after October 1, 1991, will be eligible for the exam.

3 – Number of attempts

• A candidate can attempt JEE Advanced a maximum of two times in two consecutive years

4 – Appearance in Class 12 (or equivalent) examination

• Candidates can appear for this engineering entrance exam if they have appeared for their Class 12 or equivalent exam for the first time in 2020 or 2021. 

5 – Earlier admission at IITs/ISM

• A candidate should NOT have been admitted in an IIT irrespective of whether or not he/she continued in the programme OR accepted an IIT seat by reporting at a reporting centre in the past. Candidates whose admission at IITs was cancelled after joining any IIT are also not eligible to appear in JEE Advanced 2021.
• Candidates who have been admitted to a preparatory course in any of the IITs for the first time in 2020 can appear in JEE Advanced 2021.
• The candidates who paid seat acceptance fee in 2020 but (i) did not report at any reporting centre OR, (ii) withdrew before the last round of seat allotment, OR, (iii) had their seat cancelled (for whatever reason) before the last round of seat allotment for IITs, during the joint seat allocation in 2020 are eligible to appear in JEE Advanced 2021.
• However, in any of the above cases, the candidate is required to fulfil the conditions mentioned from criterion 1 to criterion 4.

JEE Advanced Admission Criteria 2021

Aspirants who will qualify JEE Advanced 2021 exam have to fulfil at least one of the criteria given below for admission to bachelor’s programmes, integrated master’s programmes and dual degree programmes at IITs:

• Candidates must have secured a minimum of 75% aggregate in the Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination. The aggregate marks for SC, ST and PWD marks should be at least 65%
• Candidates should be within the category-wise top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination. 

Reservation of Seats

As per the JEE Advanced information brochure, “Candidates who are not citizens of India at the time of registering for JEE Advanced 2021 (by birth or naturalised) are treated as foreign nationals”. It is further shared that, “Seats allotted to foreign nationals are supernumerary. However, not all Institutes may have supernumerary seats. The availability of supernumerary seats will be announced at the time of seat allocation”.

Indian nationals will be offered admissions based on seats reserved for the category under which they fall. This reservation of seats was done as per the rules mentioned by the Government of India.

As per the information brochure, “Unfilled seats in the OBC-NCL category can be allotted to GEN category candidates whereas seats remaining vacant under the SC and ST categories shall not be allotted to candidates belonging to other categories. The reservation for PwD candidates was horizontal and hence, unfilled seats were allotted to candidates belonging to the respective categories, i.e, unfilled SC-PwD seats were allotted to candidates belonging to the SC category and so on”.

Candidates should note here that, once they select a category at the time of JEE Advanced registration, then they will not be given an option to make any changes in their category selection field in the registration form.

JEE Advanced 2021: Eligibility for Foreign Nationals

Candidates who are NOT citizens of India (by birth or naturalized) and have studied (are studying) abroad at 10+2 level or equivalent at the time of registering for JEE (Advanced) 2021, are treated as foreign nationals. Seats allotted to foreign nationals are supernumerary with a cap of 10% of the total number of seats in every course.

Foreign nationals are outside the ambit of reservation of seats under the GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST and PwD (Persons with Disability) categories as mandated by Govt. of India.

These candidates are not required to write JEE (Main) 2021 and may register for JEE (Advanced) 2021 directly subject to fulfilment of other eligibility criteria.

Identity Proof: Identity proof of the candidate is required in the form of a citizenship certificate/passport.

Registration fee for JEE (Advanced) 2021

All foreign candidates who desire to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2021 have to register online through the JEE (Advanced) 2021 website, https://jeeadv.ac.in. The registration fee for JEE (Advanced) 2021 applicable to foreign nationals is given in the following table.

Registration Fee for JEE (Advanced) 2021

• The registration fee shown above DOES NOT INCLUDE service charges, processing fees and any other charges that the banks may levy.
• Detailed instructions related to the payment of the registration fee will be given on the online registration portal.

JEE (Advanced) 2021: Eligibility Criteria for foreign nationals 

All foreign candidates must fulfil every one of the following four criteria to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021.

Criterion 1 – Age limit: Candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 1996. In countries where a minimum stint in the armed forces (or allied) for a certain period is mandatory before/after the Class 12 (or equivalent) exam, the candidate will be given a relaxation of the required number of years. In such cases, the candidate is required to upload a certificate/testimonial issued by a competent authority to this effect at the time of registration.

Criterion 2 – Number of attempts: A candidate can attempt JEE (Advanced) a maximum of two times in consecutive years.

Criterion 3 – Appearance in Class 12 (or equivalent) examination: A candidate should have appeared for the Class 12 or equivalent examination for the first time in either 2020 or 2021.

However, if the examination Board of Class 12 (or equivalent) declares the results for the academic year 2018-19 after June 2019, then the candidates of that board who appeared for their Class 12 exam in 2019 are also eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021, provided they meet the other eligibility criteria. In case, the examination Board of Class 12 (or equivalent) declared the results for the academic year 2018-19 before June 2019 but the result of a particular candidate was withheld, then the candidate will not be eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021.

Criterion 4 – Earlier admission at IITs: A candidate should NOT have been admitted in an IIT irrespective of whether or not he/she continued in the programme OR accepted an IIT seat by reporting at a reporting centre in the past. Candidates whose admission at IITs was cancelled after joining any IIT are also NOT eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021.

The candidates who paid seat acceptance fee in 2020 but (i) did not report at any reporting centre OR, (ii) withdrew before the last round of seat allotment, OR, (iii) had their seat cancelled (for whatever reason) before the last round of seat allotment for IITs, during the joint seat allocation in 2020, are eligible to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021. However, in any of the above cases, the candidate is required to fulfil the conditions mentioned from criterion 1 to Criterion 3.

Performance in Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination

The candidates should satisfy at least one of the following two criteria for admission to IITs:

1. Must have secured at least 75% aggregate in Class 12 (or equivalent) Board examination.
2. Must be within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination.

The percentile calculation will be done for the required subjects in a single academic year only. Therefore, candidates appearing for improvement in Board examinations can EITHER appear in one or more subjects and secure 75% aggregate after improvement OR, appear for improvement in ALL subjects to be in the top 20 percentile of the corresponding academic year.

• The marks scored in the following five subjects will be considered for calculating the aggregate marks and the cut-off marks for fulfilling the top 20 percentile criterion.
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Mathematics
  • A language (if the candidate has taken more than one language, then the language with the higher marks will be considered)
  • Any subject other than the above four (the subject with the highest marks will be considered).
• For calculation of the total marks for five subjects, if the marks awarded in a subject are NOT out of 100, then the marks will be scaled (up or down) to 100 so that the total aggregate is out of 500.
• If a Board awards only letter grades without providing an equivalent percentage of marks on the grade sheet, the candidate should obtain a certificate from the Board specifying the equivalent marks and submit it at the time of acceptance of the allocated seat. In case such a certificate is not provided, the decision was taken by the Joint Implementation Committee of JEE (Advanced) 2021 will be final.
• In case any of the subjects Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Language are not evaluated in the final year (e.g., in a 3-year diploma course), then the marks for the same subject from the previous year/s will be used for calculating the percentage of aggregate marks.
• For candidates who appeared in Class 12 (or equivalent) Board examination for the first time in 2020 and reappeared in ALL subjects (for whatsoever reason) in 2021, the best of the two performances will be considered.
• If a Board gives aggregate marks considering both Class 11 and Class 12 examinations (in the 10+2 system), then only Class 12 marks will be considered. If a Board gives aggregate marks considering the results of all three years of a 3-year diploma or courses of equivalent duration, then only the marks scored in the final year will be considered. Similarly, for Boards that follow a semester system, the marks scored in the final two semesters will be considered.
• If a Board does not give marks scored in individual subjects but gives only the aggregate marks, then the aggregate marks given by the Board will be considered as such.

Regarding the cut-off marks for the top 20 percentile

• The cut-off marks for the top 20 percentile are calculated based on the marks scored by the candidates who pass in their respective boards in the particular year.
• It is reiterated that the top 20 percentile cut-off for the academic year 2021 will be considered for the candidates who pass the Class 12 (or equivalent) examination in 2021.
• Similarly, the top 20 percentile cut-off for the academic year 2020 will be considered for the candidates who pass the Class 12 (or equivalent) examination in 2020.
• Candidates who appeared in Class 12 (or equivalent) examination for the first time in 2020 and wish to (or have to) reappear in 2021 to qualify through the top 20 percentile cut-off criteria, should reappear in all the subjects. For such candidates, the top 20 percentile cut-off for 2021 will be considered.
• In case a Board does not provide information about the cut-off for the top 20 percentile, the candidate will have to produce a certificate from the respective Board stating that he/she falls within the top 20 percentile of successful candidates. If the candidate fails to do so, then the cut-off marks will be used in the respective categories for the CBSE.

Regarding the aggregate of 75%

• The aggregate marks scored by the candidate in the 2021 Class 12 (or equivalent) Board examination will be considered for candidates who pass the Class 12 examination in 2021.
• The aggregate marks scored by the candidate in the 2020 Class 12 (or equivalent) Board examination will be considered provided the candidate does not reappear in Class 12 (or equivalent) examination in 2021 in any of the subjects.
• If a candidate has passed his/her Class 12 (or equivalent) in 2020 and wishes to improve his/her aggregate marks to meet the “aggregate marks of 75% criterion”, he/she can reappear for any number of subjects he/she wishes for improvement. The percentage marks in this situation will be calculated by considering the marks obtained in 2020 or 2021, whichever is higher, in the respective subjects, in his/her two attempts in 2020 and 2021.

Documents required for registration

• Birth certificate for age proof
• Class 12 marks sheet/certificate for 75% cutoff (if available at the time of registration)
• Identity proof
• Citizenship certificate/Passport
• Testimonial (if required)

FAQs related to JEE Advanced 2021 Eligibility Criteria

Q. I Appeared in the Class XII Examination for the First Time in 2020. Am I Eligible for JEE Advanced 2021?

A. Yes, you are eligible provided you satisfy other eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced as well.

Q. What is the Relaxation Period for ST, SC, and PwD Aspirants in Terms of Age?

A. Five years of relaxation is given to the SC, ST, and PwD candidates.

Q. Is it Mandatory to Write JEE Main to be Eligible for JEE Advanced?

A. Yes, it is mandatory to appear for JEE Main and also clear the exams.

Q. How Many JEE Main Candidates are Eligible to Appear for JEE Advanced?

A. A total of 2.50 lakh AIR holders of JEE Main will be eligible to appear for JEE Advanced 2021.

Q. What Subjects are considered for JEE Advanced 2021 Eligibility?

A. Candidates must have studied subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and English or Hindi.