JEE Main: Students find Mathematics lengthy, tough

Mathematics was tough and lengthy for most students who wrote the JEE Main examination in the offline mode on Sunday.

The exam conducted by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) is the first step for admission to prestigious engineering colleges, including the IITs and NITs.

The three-hour paper started at 9.30 am. The paper consists of 90 questions of maximum 360 marks. Students get four marks for each correct answer and one negative mark for every wrong answer.

Of the three parts, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, most students found the last one the toughest.

Akshay from Deeksha Centre For Learning said: "The paper was a bit tougher than last year. One section which took me by surprise was Mathematics which was lengthy. Physics was really easy compared to last year. "

Another student Rithik Mali said the exam was quite good though Math was tough.

"It was similar to the previous year. There were no unexpected questions. Chemistry was the easiest while Maths was a bit lengthy and tough," he said.

Students could opt either the pen-and-paper mode or computer-based online mode. The latter will be conducted on April 15 and 16.

Many candidates opted for the offline mode as the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) is scheduled for April 18 and 19.

Karthik Puranik chose to take the offline test since it would give him more time to prepare for CET.

On Sunday's exam, he said: "Physics was pretty simple but Chemistry was tougher than the previous year. Though some problems in Maths were quite lengthy, the paper was moderate. Mock tests were of great help in learning to manage time."

Prof P S Sastry, from BASE coaching institute, observed that the examination was too lengthy, with the Mathematics and Physics parts taking more time to solve.

He said the cut-off could be expected to be between 85 and 95.