Hyderabad: Physics was the toughest paper amongst mathematics, physics and chemistry in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main offline paper held on Sunday across the country. Mathematics was the easiest paper and chemistry was moderately easy, according to experts.
The entrance examination was conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. The online paper will be held on April 15 and April 16. It was a three-hour paper, held in the morning from 9. 30 am to 12.30 pm.
The test paper had 90 questions for 360 marks. There were three parts in the question paper that was divided subject-wise. The order of subjects was different in different versions of the booklets. The options given for the questions were also shuffled in various versions.
Each subject carried 30 questions. All questions were objective in nature with four choices, of which only one could be the correct answer. Each question carried four marks for the correct response and -1 for the wrong response. All questions were ‘single correct multiple choice’ type.
Mr Rajshekhar Ratrey, V-P of Educational Content, Toppr.com, said, “In terms of difficulty level, this year’s paper was similar to the last two years’ papers. The paper was overall moderately easy. A student should not have had much trouble completing the paper as well. They found similarities between the weightage of marks in this paper, and the Class XII syllabus. The JEE Main cut-off should fall between 95 and 105.”
Professor Uday Nath Mishra, chief academic officer, BasicFirst said, “Expected cut off is 80 (+/-5%) marks out of 360. The paper was moderately easy and based on NCERT. Chemistry was the most lengthy section. Organic chemistry was found to be more difficult. Mathematics was was more formula-based. The most number of questions were from calculus. Physics was based on Class XI syllabus and a greater portion of mechanics & electrostatics was covered.”
Mr Venkat Ramana, head of JEE exam, T.I.M.E., Hyderabad, said, “Physics and chemistry questions were relatively easy in JEE Main 2018. The questions in mathematics required lengthy calculations in solving them. Hence, many students rated mathematics section tough.”
Traffic block, lack of space irk parents
Parents of IIT-JEE aspirants from the city alleged there proper arrangements were not made at centres for the JEE Main examination. Though candidates were asked to report at 7 am for the exam which began at 9.30 am, no officials were present at the centre at that time, parents told this newspaper.
Major Shiv Kiran, a parent who accompanied his daughter from Begumpet to her centre in Kapra, said, “It was a logistical nightmare. After dropping the children at the exam centre, where were the parents supposed to wait? Were we supposed to go all the way back and themn come back to pick the children up again ? Imagine the carbon footprint of so many vehicles crisscrossing the city, the wastage of man-hours, and the unnecessary anxiety, all of which were avoidable.”
He said that it was mentioned on the candidates’ admit cards that they had to report at 7 am. “We understand that it is good to reach the examination centre early, but no one from the management and no officials were to be seen until 8 am, which was quite strange. We did not have any of their contact details. And so we had to just wait outside. There was a major traffic jam as no parking space was available,” he said.
