IIT JAM Pattern

There will be a total of 60 questions carrying a total of 100 marks. The entire paper will be divided into three sections, A, B and C. All sections are compulsory. Questions in each section will be of different types as given below:

Section - C contains a total of 20 Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions involving 10 questions of one mark each and 10 questions of two marks each. For NAT questions, the answer is a signed real number, which needs to be entered using the virtual numeric keypad displayed on the monitor. No choices will be shown for NAT questions. There is no negative marking for NAT.

According to the IIT JAM 2026 exam pattern, there will be no deduction of marks for unanswered questions. Such questions will not be taken into consideration while calculating the total marks of a candidate. Hence, if candidates are not sure about the answer of a question, it is better to leave it unattempted rather than doing guessworkto avoid negative marking. Also, candidates are advised to revise the JAM exam sheet on the computer screen before submitting it.  

IIT JAM exam will be conducted for 7 subjects, and the examination pattern is divided in such a way that the examination will have 60 questions. These 60 questions have the following types:

• Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) – 30 questions

  Each question has four choices with one correct answer.

• Multiple Select Questions (MSQs) – 10 questions

  Each question has four choices with one or more correct answers.

• Numerical Answer Type (NAT) – 20 questions

  The answer for each question is a signed real number that needs to be entered using the virtual numeric keypad on the monitor. No choices will be shown for these questions.

IIT Madras, the examination-conducting body, will be conducting IIT JAM 2026 for the academic year 2026-2027. Aspirants of IIT JAM 2026 examination must go through the exam pattern carefully before starting the preparation.

The JAM 2026 examination will be conducted in such a way that the question paper for each subject will have 60 questions. These 60 questions will be in the format of MCQ, MSQ and NAT type.

A. IIT JAM is of three hours duration. The national-level Science entrance exam will be conducted in two sessions, which are as follows: 

• Session-I (9 AM to 12 noon) for the following JAM Test Papers- Chemistry (CY), Geology (GG) and Mathematics (MA)
• Session-II (2.30 PM to 5.30 PM) for the following JAM Test Papers- Economics (EN), Biotechnology (BT), Physics (PH) and Mathematical Statistics (MS)

Candidates who want to appear for the IIT JAM exam for Physics course admission should formulate a strategy to crack this Science entrance exam. Here, it is important that candidates go through important IIT JAM Physics books, identify important topics, and thereafter solve as many IIT JAM question papers as they can. This is a sure-shot way of getting a good rank in the IIT JAM result.

Candidates can go through important topics that they should study to score well in the IIT JAM exam in the table mentioned below:

IIT JAM is a computer-based test of three hours duration carrying 60 questions with total of 100 marks. The exam is conducted for seven subjects,  Physics, Chemistry, Biotechnology, Geology, Mathematics, Mathematical Statistics and Economics. 

The IIT JAM 2025 examination pattern is same for all the seven subjects for which the examination is being conducted.  The questions are divided into three types, multiple-choice questions (MCQs), Multiple Select Questions (MSQs) and Numerical Answer Type (NAT). There is a differential marking scheme for each of these question types.