One in Four Aspirants Favour Use of Calculators in Both JEE Main and Advanced, Shows Poll

Should calculators be allowed in national-level entrance exams like JEE Main and JEE Advanced? We asked the students, and here is what they said. Read below.

One in Four Aspirants Favour Use of Calculators in Both JEE Main and Advanced, Shows Poll

This year, the National Testing Agency (NTA) introduced the provision of virtual calculators in the JEE Main exam and announced the same via the JEE Main brochure. However, after a few days, NTA released a notice, 'Clarification on Use of Virtual Calculator in JEE (Main) 2026- Reg'. This notice stated that a 'typographic error' was made on their part in the brochure, and 'use of calculators in any form is not permitted in JEE Mains'. Further, NTA uploaded a revised brochure clearly stating that the use of any kind of calculator, be it physical or virtual, will not be allowed in the NTA JEE Main exam.

However, this caused a wave of discussion among the student community and many students, surprisingly, said the use of calculators in JEE Main should not be allowed. Thus, Shikhsa.com ran a poll to understand what our student community feel about the use of calculators in national-level exams like JEE Main and JEE Advanced. We asked, "Should calculators be allowed in JEE Main and JEE Advanced?" We have the result of the poll, and here is an analysis.

• Most of the students (34%) feel that calculators should be allowed only in JEE Advanced.
• 25% of the students believe that calculators should be allowed in both JEE Main and Advanced.
• 13% said the not physical, but virtual calculators should be allowed in both exams.
• 7% of the candidates believe that calculators can be allowed only for numerical-type questions.
• While a decent number of candidates said that calculators should not be allowed.

The result is surprising, that a good section of the candidates (21%) feel that calculators should not be allowed in JEE Main and Advanced.

Along with the poll, we also asked the students, "Are you in favour of or against the use of calculators in JEE?"

On this, Sujit Karmakar, from the student community, commented, "No, as then there will be no competition, they will only remember the formulas, and they will not be able to do complex calculations and will deprive the way of thinking for students". While Bharathi Kaipu said "I am in favour", Gunjan commented "It should get allowed."

Outcome of the Poll

While the majority of the candidates want calculators in the exams, another huge section of the student community fears that the use of calculators may lead to an increase in exam difficulty or lower the standard of the exam. While some also feel that the skillsets of students might deteriorate.

JEE Main 2026 session 1 registration is over, and NTA will soon release the city intimation slip on the official website - jeemain.nta.nic.in in the third week of January. JEE Main 2026 session 1 exam will be held between January 21 to 30, and the session 2 exams are scheduled to be held between April 2 to 9.

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