On Thursday, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal indicated the government's willingness to increase the number of attempts of the JEE Mains at an interaction with students at the National Entrance exam for engineering programmes. He said four attempts were ‘positively considered’ by the ministry, which senior officers later acknowledged was a done deal.

The JEE-Main will be held in multiple shifts, over three to four days, in February, March, April and May. Students can appear for all four exams, and only their best score will be used to prepare the All-India Rank list. In pre-coronavirus times, the entrance test was organized in January and April.

In addition, all candidates appearing for JEE-Main next year would have to attempt 75 out of 90 questions, or 25 out of 30 in each segment of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics, given the extraordinary circumstances. Up until this year, students did not have a choice of questions.

The change in the question paper format is being introduced to accommodate school Boards that have reduced class XI and XII syllabus and those that haven’t, officials said. “Kerala, for instance, hasn’t cut its high school syllabus, while CBSE has. So the JEE-Main has to cover both. Hence the decision made to ask candidates to attempt 75 out of 90 questions,” said an officer not willing to be identified.

During his interaction with students, Pokhriyal ruled out cancelling NEET, the national entrance test for admission to all undergraduate medical programmes in the country. As for the final date of holding the exam, he said the National Testing Agency is currently consulting the Ministry of Health on the examination schedule and mode – online or offline, or both – of examination.

Asked questions about CBSE’s 2021 examinations for classes X and XII, Pokhriyal said the government will decide on the timing as per the pandemic situation. He reiterated that CBSE’s 2021 syllabus has been slashed by 30 percent, and no further reduction will be made.