IIT-JEE 2012 : Analysis, Expected Cut-offs and Rankings

On April 8, 2012, about 5 lakh students appeared for IIT-JEE across the country for admission into the prestigious IITs. Since the students were allowed to carry a carbon copy of the OMR (answer) sheet, they would have already calculated their scores by now. But what matters the most for qualifying is the relative score and hence cut-offs for which some amount of examination analysis is required.  

As usual, the IIT-JEE was conducted in two parts – Paper I and Paper II. Paper I was of 210 marks (70 marks each for Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics) while Paper II was of 198 marks (66 marks each for Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics) making the total marks for IIT-JEE 408 this year unlike previous year’s 480. The number of questions was also reduced this year to allow students to attempt all the questions. Quite a few questions were thought provoking.

The type of questions asked in Paper I were “Single Correct Answer Type”, “Multiple Correct Answers Type” and “Integer Type” while those asked in Paper II were “Single Correct Answer Type”, “Multiple Correct Answers Type” and “Comprehension Type”. What was surprising was that the “Matrix – Match Type” questions that used to be the most challenging ones (difficult and time-taking) had been done away with making both the papers simpler.  

Fig. 1 : Level of Difficulty

Students were excited after Paper I that was comparatively easier than Paper II.   Overall, among the individual subjects, Mathematics was the easiest; some students found Chemistry as the toughest while others found Physics to be the most difficult. I personally found Physics to be easier than Chemistry, Mathematics being the easiest. Based on the student and teacher feedback, the chart shows the level of difficulty of questions in each subject for both the papers combined. The numbers also clearly indicate that attempting the right questions in the examination can easily let any aspirant through, since there are sufficient number of easy questions asked; you just need to find them in the paper.

Fig. 2 : Physics topic-wise break-up

Fig. 3: Chemistry topic-wise break-up

Fig. 4 : Mathematics topic-wise break-up

Above are the topic-wise break-up of marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Students who would have read and followed my previous article on “Last Week Preparation Guide for IIT-JEE 2012”

(http://www.gyancentral.com/articles/graduate/engineering/engineering-entrance-exams/the-last-week-preparation-guide-for-iitjee-2012) would have gained a lot because in the last week, they would have revised the relevant topics suggested.

In Physics, questions on Current Electricity & Magnetism, Electrostat, Heat, Modern and Sound formed a major percentage of total marks and could have been solved with ease. In Chemistry, though questions on Organic Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry formed a decent percentage of the total questions asked, it was dominated by Physical Chemistry.  

Talking about Mathematics, a lot of questions were asked from Calculus and that made some part of the paper a little tricky though considerable portion was easy. Quite a few questions were directly from Eduwiser Publishing Group books (like the ones from Permutation & Combination, Vectors & 3-D Geometry, Limits, etc.) with very slight data change. Coordinate Geometry and Vectors & 3-D Geometry continued to be evergreen and highly rewarding but safe topics.

Coming to the most important part of this article – expected ranking of students who know their approximate scores and the expected cut-offs for the IIT-JEE 2012.

Since I believe in equal opportunity for all, I am only going to discuss the cut-offs for the General Category. According to my analysis, the students will need to score a minimum of 14, 14 and 20 marks in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics to be considered for IIT-JEE rankings. These are called the MQMR – Minimum Qualifying Marks for Ranking and are different from the marks of the last ranked candidate (which the people wrongly refer to as individual subject cut-offs) in IIT-JEE. The aggregate cut-off this time is expected to touch 188 marks. So, the IITs will probably release rankings for students who score 188 marks and more (provided they have scored the MQMR for individual subjects). For students who get very low ranks (say 9000 and beyond), they must know that their admission into any of the IITs will depend on availability of seats. Merely receiving a rank from IITs does not guarantee admission into IITs.

Tabulated above is your aggregate score against your expected ranking according to my analysis. The last ranked candidate is expected to score an aggregate of 188 marks while the topper is expected to score an aggregate of 374 marks.

The actual data will however be known only when the results are out on May 18, 2012. Until then, we can only publish the ‘expected’ rankings and ‘expected’ cut-offs. The way forward for students now is to focus on their next major examination(s) – be it AIEEE and/or MHCET, etc. thinking that they are not going to get through IIT-JEE. This will probably help them perform better in the remaining examinations.

Wishing all the students “All the Best” for their IIT-JEE results and their upcoming examinations.

Disclaimer : All the data in the article are solely based on the author’s individual analysis. The author does not guarantee the numbers to match the actual outcome.

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