How many times a student can appear for JEE Mains?

For upon |JEE Main is India’s biggest and the most sought after engineering entrance exam. Along with the benefits that this exam provides, it also comes with fierce competition. Clearing JEE Main Cutoff is certainly not an easy task.And therefore, many candidates do take more than 1 attempt to clear JEE Main cutoff.

But with National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct JEE Main 2019 this year, there have been many significant changes introduced in the exam. One pretty important one being that the exam will be conducted twice every year. And this is the change that has created quite a lot of confusion in the mind of students.

Well, if you are confused about how many times you can take the exam, then you are at perfect place. We will let you know that how many times one can actually appear for JEE Main, and how will things change if you appear for JEE Main 2019 in both the attempts. Take a look: –

Who all are eligible for JEE Main 2019?

Before we move on to the number of attempts one can take, let us take a look what is the eligibility criterion for JEE Main 2019.

Candidates who have passed their Class 12 examination in 2017 or 2018 are eligible to appear for the exam. Further, the candidates who will be appearing for their Class 12 exams this year, i.e. in 2019, are also eligible to appear.

And thus, candidates completing Class 12 in 2016, or before that, are not eligible for JEE Main 2019. Also, candidates who first appeared for Class 12 examinations in 2016, but passed in 2017, are also not eligible.

Further, candidates who are in Class 11, or will appear for Class 12 exams in 2020 are also not eligible.

What was the earlier criterion for repeaters?

The criterion for repeating JEE Main had been clearly defined earlier. Earlier, any candidate could appear for JEE Main 3 times, but only in consecutive years.

Now this usually created a bit of doubt in the minds of aspirants. So let us take a simple example to understand this. Let’s say a candidate is going to complete his Class 12 in 2015. Such a candidate can appear for JEE Main in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Now if he appears for JEE Main in 2017, and skips in 2016, and again appears for it in 2018, his attempt limit is over. Even after appearing only twice, his attempt limit is over as he has used up the ‘three consecutive years’ he had.

Also, candidates must keep in mind that both eligibility criterion and criterion of repeat attempts is to be satisfied to appear for JEE Main.

What is the criterion now?

Even after NTA conducting the exam from this year, the repeaters’ criteria for JEE Main 2019 has not changed. But the candidates just need to understand how two attempts will be counted as one.

JEE Main 2019 official website says that both the attempts in a single academic year will be counted as ‘one.’ It means that even if you appear for both January and April 2019, it will be taken as only one attempt and not two.

So essentially, you can appear for JEE Main 6 times now. But the criterion of 3 consecutive years is still in place. So from this year onwards, candidates can take 2 + 2 + 2, 6 attempts, but in 3 successive years only.

So if you are taking both the attempts in 2019, you can still take 2 attempts each in 2020 and 2021, provided that you fulfill the eligibility criterion of the test.

Also, let’s say someone takes both the attempts in 2019, takes 1 in 2020 and then again takes 2 in 2021, even then his/her attempt limit will be over. Thus, concludingly, it can be said that one can take a maximum of 6 attempts in 3 consecutive years from now onwards.

We hope this gave you complete clarity about the number of attempts of JEE Main. So start studying even harder now and make sure you beat the JEE Main Cutoff this year itself.