JEE Advanced 2023: Cut-off increases, number of qualified candidates also increases

A total of 43,773 out of 1,80,372 candidates cleared the entrance test for admission to undergraduate programmes in 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year.

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With an overall score of 341 out of 360, Vavilala Chidvilas Reddy from the IIT Hyderabad zone topped JEE-Advanced 2023. This year’s female topper is also from the same zone — Nayakanti Naga Bhavya Sree with an overall score of 298.

The qualifying cut-off for the common rank list (CRL) was 23.89 per cent, a significant jump from last year’s CRL cut-off of 15.28 per cent — which was also the lowest since 2012. Similarly, all the other categories, such as the General-EWS, OBC, SC and ST rank lists, saw an increase in cut-offs compared to the previous year.

Professor Bishnupada Mandal, Organising Chairperson of JEE-Advanced 2023, explained: “This year, there were more questions without penalty which resulted in less percentage of negative marking. This in turn led to high-marks and thus higher cut-offs this year.”

As the qualifying cut-off score jumped, the pass percentage dipped — from last year’s 26.17 per cent to 24.26 per cent this year.

Cut-offs increased across categories this year in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced, whose results were announced Sunday, with the IIT Hyderabad zone accounting for the highest number of qualifying candidates — both overall and among the top 500 — among all seven zones.

The zone comprises Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

A total of 43,773 out of 1,80,372 candidates cleared the entrance test for admission to undergraduate programmes in 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year.

With an overall score of 341 out of 360, Vavilala Chidvilas Reddy from the IIT Hyderabad zone topped JEE-Advanced 2023. This year’s female topper is also from the same zone — Nayakanti Naga Bhavya Sree with an overall score of 298.

The qualifying cut-off for the common rank list (CRL) was 23.89 per cent, a significant jump from last year’s CRL cut-off of 15.28 per cent — which was also the lowest since 2012. Similarly, all the other categories, such as the General-EWS, OBC, SC and ST rank lists, saw an increase in cut-offs compared to the previous year.

Professor Bishnupada Mandal, Organising Chairperson of JEE-Advanced 2023, explained: “This year, there were more questions without penalty which resulted in less percentage of negative marking. This in turn led to high-marks and thus higher cut-offs this year.”

As the qualifying cut-off score jumped, the pass percentage dipped — from last year’s 26.17 per cent to 24.26 per cent this year.

But in terms of absolute numbers, more candidates qualified for admission to the IITs. Last year, 40,712 out of 1,55,538 candidates qualified. And in 2021, 41,862 out of 1,41,699 qualified.

Prof Mandal explained why the number of qualifying candidates has increased this year amid the rise in cut-off. “It is important to note that the number of candidates registering for JEE Advanced has seen a significant increase this year. Additionally, the number of candidates qualifying for the JEE-Advanced has to be double the number of seats available for admissions. Accordingly, the qualifying criteria is fixed,” he said.

The IIT Hyderabad zone had 10,432 qualifying candidates, 174 of whom were in the top 500. This zone had the highest share of qualifying candidates as well as those in the top 500.

In 2022, the IIT Delhi zone had 133 candidates in the top 500 followed by the IIT Madras zone (made up of the same states as the IIT Hyderabad zone) with 132.

In 2021, the IIT Bombay zone had 137 candidates in the top 500 followed by the IIT Madras zone with 135. And in 2020, the IIT Madras zone had 140 candidates in the top 500 followed by the IIT Delhi zone with 110.

Of the 174 IIT Hyderabad zone candidates in the top 500 this year, six are in the top ten — which, too, is the highest among all seven zones.

Prof Mandal said: “This zone had the highest number of candidates registering (45,671) as well as appearing (43,006) for the JEE-Advanced; resulting in a high number of candidates qualifying the exam.”

This zone is followed closely by the IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay zones.

Also, of the 43,773 candidates who qualified, 7,509 are female, compared to 6,516 in 2022 and 6,452 in 2021. The qualifying candidates this year also include 13 foreign nationals and 155 Overseas Citizens of India.

The result was declared by IIT Guwahati.

Box 2 – Distribution of candidates across zones

Box 3 – comparison of qualified candidates past three years

Box 4 – zone-wise distribution of top 500 candidates