JEE Main 2014: A quick paper analysis of the online exam

The JEE Main 2014 online paper commenced today, on April 9, 2014. The online exam will be conducted on three more days, i.e. April 11, 12 and 19 and is expected to be taken by a total of around five lakh students across India and abroad.

The exam is being held in two slots. The first slot for B.Tech courses (Paper 1) began at 9:30 am sharp and concluded around 12:30 pm, while the second slot for B.Arch courses(Paper 2) was conducted from 2pm to 5 pm.

Paper 1 is divided into three sections – Physics, Chemistry and Mathemics – carrying total of 360 marks. Each question carries four marks and one mark each will be deducted for any wrong answer.

The toughest section:

Some of the students who appeared for the online exam today, reported Physics to be quite tough in comparison to Mathematics and Chemistry, which is contrary to the students reactions shiksha.com received for the offline paper conducted on April 6, 2014. According to those students, Maths was the toughest section in the offline paper.

Students said that Maths and Chemistry section had equal level of difficulty. The questions were quite convenient to answer and no unexpected questions were asked in both these sections.

Distribution of topics:

No topics were given more weightage and there was equal distribution of questions across all the three sections – Physics, Chemistry and Maths.

Any technical glitches:

Unlike the last year where various students reported technical glitches in the exam, this year students haven’t complained of any glitches as such. According to students, the system was better with improved features. For instance, the right hand side of the computer screen had a scrolling sheet displaying all the question numbers. Students could click on a particular question and get on to that question as and when they wanted to.

Then, at the bottom of the screen, there was a ‘save and continue’ option to proceed and then finally submit the saved answers. Students had an option to go back to the previous page and check or correct their answer. Students were also given rough sheets for calculations. However, these rough sheets were to be submitted to the centre superintendent at the end of the test.

Unexpected questions/surprises:

Unlike the offline paper, where a lot of students reported surprises and unexpected questions, in the online paper, nothing as such was reported by students. But basically, the test experience varies from student to student.

Overall analysis:

This year’s online paper was similar to the offline paper. In both the papers , the Chemistry section was the easiest, while Maths and Physics were comparatively difficult. Basically, it’s important to understand that the offline and online papers will be similar because CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) will not create differences between the difficulty level of both the papers. Therefore, the level of questions asked should remain the same.

Disclaimer: The analysis is based on the feedback of students who took the exam on the first day. It may vary from one student to the other.

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