What's the minimum marks to qualify JEE Main 2025? NTA score vs percentile for new paper pattern

NEW DELHI: The National Testing Agency (NTA) will declare the Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main 2025) session 1 results on February 12. The JEE Main score and percentile are expected to be different this year due to the changes introduced in the exam pattern and especially because of the removal of optional questions from section B. JEE Mains 2025 LIVE

The JEE Mains 2025 is conducted for admission to BTech, BE, BArch, and other undergraduate engineering courses offered at National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Centrally-funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), and other participating universities and colleges. It is also an eligibility exam for JEE Advanced 2025 conducted for the top 2.5 lakh rank holders in JEE Main 2025 for admission to all IITs.

JEE Main 2025 Results: What's new?

The JEE Main question paper 2025 covered three subjects - mathematics, physics, and chemistry - for BE, BTech paper 1. The testing agency will convert the raw score obtained by candidates in all three subjects into NTA scores. The overall merit will be prepared by merging the NTA scores of all shifts of all days.

The JEE Main BE, BTech paper 1 had 20 questions in section A and 5 compulsory questions in section B. The total marks for JEE Main paper 1 is 300. On the other hand, the JEE Main BArch and BPlanning papers had 20 questions in section A, 5 questions in section B for mathematics, and 50 aptitude questions in part 2. In addition, JEE Main paper 2A had 2 ‘Drawing test’ and paper 2B had 25 ‘Planning’ questions carrying 100 marks each.

Last year, the number of registered students for JEE Main was 12,21,624 and the total number of candidates who took the exam was 11,70,048. This year, a total number of 13,78,232 registered for the JEE Main session 1 exam 2025, out of which 13,00,273 candidates appeared for the exam.

The NTA conducted the entrance exam at 584 exam centers in 284 cities in India and 15 cities abroad. It recorded an overall attendance of 94.4%.

What is JEE Main percentile score?

The number of candidates who took the exam is one of the important factors used while converting the NTA scores to the JEE Main percentile. Since the exam is conducted in multiple shifts, the difficulty level of the exam in each shift may vary. To ensure that no student is benefited or disadvantaged, the NTA follows a normalisation method to compare scores obtained by students across the multi-session exams.

JEE Main percentile scores indicate the relative performance of all candidates who appeared in the JEE Main 2025 exam. The marks obtained are converted into a scale ranging from 100 to 0 for each session. In short, the percentile score shows the percentage of candidates that have scored equal to or below that particular percentile in the exam.

Also read JEE Main Results 2025: January 28 shift 1 rated ‘toughest’; what is a good score for session 1 exam

99 percentile in JEE Main 2025

Marks obtained by students in the 99 percentile range in each shift last year are given below. The difference between the JEE Main NTA score obtained by a candidate who got 99 percentile in day 1 shift 1 and day 4 shift 2 is 85 marks; this was widely criticised by academics and subject experts, the Careers360 founder Mahesh Peri said.

There was a difference of 44 marks between candidates who were placed under the 99 percentile in shift 1 on the first day of JEE Main January and April sessions.

95-99 percentile in JEE Main: With, without optional questions

Until last year, students had to answer 5 out of the 10 questions in section B. However, this year students had to attempt all the questions. Similarly, students were not provided with any options in the JEE Main 2020 exam. A comparison between the minimum marks required to score 99 percentile in 2020 and 2024 shows that there was an increase in the overall score with optional questions.

Also read What is a good score in JEE Main 2025? Category-wise JEE Adv cut-offs for CSE IIT admissions

Expected JEE Main marks vs percentile 2025

As per the previous year’s JEE Main results, the BE, BTech category-wise cut-off for JEE Advanced 2025 is given below. Students can also find the expected JEE Main marks to obtain the minimum JEE Main cut-off percentile, according to past trends.