JEE Advanced 2025 Exam Over: Paper Tougher Than Last Year; Cutoff Expected to Drop to 90-95 Marks

JEE Advanced 2025 threw a challenge at aspirants with a difficult Paper 2, particularly in Physics and Maths. With the overall paper tougher than last year, experts predict a significant drop in the cutoff, likely between 90 and 95 marks out of 360.

JEE Advanced 2025 Cutoff Expected to Drop

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2025, conducted for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), proved to be more challenging than last year. While candidates found JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 1 moderate, Paper 2 was widely considered difficult, especially due to the level of Physics and the curveball of no paragraph or matrix match type questions. Instead of paragraph or matrix match type questions, integer type questions were asked in paper 2.

LIVE: JEE Advanced 2025 Exam Live: Paper 2 & 1 Analysis, Answer Key, Question Paper

Paper 1, comprising 48 questions (16 each from Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics), maintained the traditional format without any significant changes. Students rated the paper as easy to moderate, with Chemistry being the easiest section across both papers. However, a surprise awaited the candidates in JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 2.

Integer Type Questions in JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 2 Troubled the Candidates

In a surprising move, JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 2 did away with paragraph-based and matrix match-type questions — formats that typically allow for strategic answering. Instead, the paper featured a higher number of integer-type questions, all of which required answers up to two decimal places. These questions were lengthy, time-consuming, and demanded in-depth conceptual understanding and calculation accuracy, making Paper 2 significantly more difficult.

Physics, in particular, was described as the toughest among the three subjects, with many candidates struggling to manage time effectively. Mathematics was rated as moderate, while Chemistry continued to be on the easier side in both sessions.

JEE Advanced 2025 Cutoff Expected to Drop

Overall, students and coaching experts alike agreed that the JEE Advanced 2025 was more difficult than JEE Advanced 2024. The increased difficulty level, especially due to the format shift in Paper 2, is expected to reflect in the cutoff scores.

In 2024, the cutoff for the general category was 109 out of 360. Given this year’s challenges, experts are predicting a significant dip in the cutoff, estimating it to fall in the range of 90 to 95 marks. This marks a notable drop and highlights the toughness of this year’s examination.

The total number of questions was reduced compared to the previous year. This year, 48 questions per paper were asked, totalling 96 questions. Last year, 51 questions were asked paper paper, bringing the total number of questions to 102. The total marks of the exam remained the same as the previous year, that is, 360 marks across both papers.

JEE Advanced 2025 official answer keys will be available on May 26, and the candidate response sheets will be available on May 22.

Read More:

• JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 2 Over; Overall Exam Difficulty Rated as 'Moderate'
• JEE Advanced 2025 Paper 1 Exam Ends; Overall Paper Moderate, Total Number of Questions 48