Baishali Mukherjee

From this year onwards, candidates will be able to take the Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced) thrice in three consecutive years. Till 2024, students were eligible to take the test twice in two consecutive years.

According to the new guidelines announced on November 6, candidates born on or after October 1, 2000 will be able to take JEE Advanced 2025. However, with five years’ age relaxation given to SC, ST, and PwD candidates, those under this category who were born on or after October 1, 1995, will be eligible for the exam.

All other eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced 2025 remain unchanged which means candidates must rank within the top 250,000 successful candidates (across all categories) in the BE/BTech Paper (Paper I) of JEE Main 2025. However, the notification also mentioned that the total number of candidates could exceed 250,000 due to tied ranks or scores within any category.

The percentages of different categories of selected candidates include 10 percent for GEN-EWS, 27 percent for OBC-NCL, 15 percent  for SC, 7.5 percent for ST, and the remaining 40.5 percent  is OPEN for all. Moreover, in each of the categories, 5 percent horizontal reservation will be for PwD candidates.

As per the decision dated February 03, 2023 passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Writ Petition (Civil) 891 / 2021, “the OCI/PIO candidates who have secured OCI/PIO card before 04.03.2021 shall be considered as Indian nationals for the purpose of seat allocation to IITs. However, these candidates are not eligible for benefits of any kind of reservation (e.g., GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST) with the exception of OPEN-PwD”.

To be eligible for JEE Advanced 2025, candidates must have appeared for their Class 12 (or equivalent) examination for the first time in 2023, 2024, or 2025, with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as compulsory subjects. Candidates who first appeared for Class 12 (or equivalent) in 2022 or earlier are not eligible, regardless of the combination of subjects attempted. However, if the examination board had declared the results for the 2021-22 academic year on or after September 21, 2022, candidates who appeared in 2022 are still eligible, provided they meet all other eligibility criteria.

However, if the plus two board (or equivalent) results for the 2021-22 academic year were declared before September 21, 2022, but a candidate’s result was withheld for some reason, they will not be eligible for JEE Advanced 2025.

Additionally, candidates who have previously been admitted to any IIT under any academic programme (as listed in the JoSAA Business Rules of 2024 or earlier) are not eligible, even if their admission was canceled later.

Also read: Academics demand scrapping of NEET, NTA, reintroduction of state JEE