Every stage, paper, question count and mark allocation for JEE Main, followed by what the penalty ratio implies for whether to attempt a question you are unsure of.
| Stage | Counts towards |
|---|---|
| Session 1 (typically January) | Merit — raw scores are normalised into NTA Scores (percentile) per shift. |
| Session 2 (typically April) | Merit — if a candidate appears in more than one session, the BEST of the JEE (Main) NTA Scores is used for the merit list/ranking; overall merit merges NTA scores of all shifts of both sessions. |
| JEE (Advanced) — separate downstream exam | Qualifying — for the 2026 cycle, candidates had to be among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates (all categories combined) in the B.E./B.Tech paper of JEE (Main). This threshold is set by the JEE (Advanced) authority and is revised cycle to cycle. |
Only the merit stages decide the final ranking. A qualifying stage must be cleared but its marks are discarded.
| Paper | Stage | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech) | JEE (Main) | 75 | 300 | 3 h |
| Paper 2A (B.Arch) | JEE (Main) | 77 | 400 | 3 h |
| Paper 2B (B.Planning) | JEE (Main) | 100 | 400 | 3 h |
| Paper 2A and Paper 2B taken together | JEE (Main) | — | — | 3 h 30 min |
Uniform across MCQs (Section A) and numerical value questions (Section B) in all papers: +4 for a correct or most appropriate answer, -1 for an incorrect answer (for MCQs, also for multiple answers marked in Paper 2A/2B), and 0 for unanswered or 'Marked for Review' without selecting an option or entering a value. Negative marking applies to BOTH Section A and Section B — this is the key change from the pre-2025 pattern, where the optional Section B questions were effectively choice-protected. The Drawing Test (Paper 2A, Part III) is the sole exception: 2 questions evaluated out of 100 marks with no negative marking. If a question is dropped or found incorrect, +4 is awarded to all candidates who appeared in that shift; if more than one option is correct, +4 goes to those who marked any correct option; if all options are correct, +4 goes to all who attempted.
Break-even accuracy
20% — A guess pays only if you are right more than one time in five, so on 4-option Section A questions a blind pick (25%) is slightly positive and one eliminated option makes it clearly positive — but Section B numerical-answer questions have no options to guess between, and now carry the same -1, so leave them blank unless you have actually worked out a value.
The full set, with progress tracking and five agent perspectives per question, is in the JupiteX app — browse the exam catalogue or browse the Learn library.