6360 more qualified JEE Advanced 2014, fierce competition ahead

Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) 2014 has become tougher this year. In 2014, more than 13.56 lakh students appeared for JEE Main – 7.6% more than 12.6 lakh engineering aspirants who took the exam in 2013. Last year, 1.23 lakh students from the top 1.5 lakh rank holders (who were among the Top 20 percentile in their respective boards in the qualifying exam) had registered for JEE Advanced. This year, 1.36 lakh students decided to compete for IIT seats.

JEE Advanced results 2014 saw 27,151 students qualifying the exam. The number of qualified candidates has increased in all the four categories – General, OBC, SC and ST. Compounded by the fact that IIT seats available this year are marginally fewer than last year, the competition has become fiercer at every stage.

This year, only 9,784 IIT seats are open to engineering aspirants.

M K Panigarh, Professor in-charge of IIT Kharagpur JEE Office, commented that the increase in number of qualified students will mean that engineering aspirants will need more marks to get a particular rank. In 2013, a student who scored 132 marks, out of a total of 360 marks, scored a 10,000 rank. This year, a student will need at least 150 marks (out of 360 marks) to score the same rank.

IIT coaching hub Kota had a redeeming point this year in the form of Chitrang Murdia, the topper of JEE Advanced 2014. Chitrang scored 334 marks out of a total of 360 marks.

A disheartening trend for this year was that there were only five female candidates among the Top 100 IIT JEE rank holders. Aditi, from IIT Roorkee Zone, was the female topper for JEE Advanced this year and scored AIR 7.