JEE Advanced Result 2018: Sharp drop in number of qualifying candidates, but IITs confident seats won't go vacant

The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2018 declared by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on Sunday saw a sharp fall in the number of candidates who managed to make the cut. Out of the 1,55,158 students who appeared for the Paper 1 and Paper 2 of JEE Advanced 2018 on 20 May, only 18,138 students were able to qualify the exam. This is a massive drop — the lowest in seven years — in the number of successful candidates as more than 51,000 students had qualified the JEE Advanced 2017. Though the number of students qualified is still 1.6 times more than the 11,279 seats being offered, since students tend to opt out if they fail to get into a course of their choice, there is a chance that not all of the seats may be filled. [caption id=“attachment_4504925” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] However, considering the last rank at which a seat was allotted in 2017 was less than 14,000, according to  The Indian Express, the IITs are sure of filling up the seats. “In 2017… the last rank at which a seat was allotted was less than 14,000. So, with over 18,000 candidates, filling up seats should not be a problem even this year,” the report quoted Aditya Mittal, chariman of JEE Advanced at IIT Delhi, as saying. For candidates from the open category, the minimum subject-wise score is 12 with an aggregate of 126. According to  The Times of India, only 8,664 candidates in this category were able to qualify while the figure was at 23,390 in 2017. The same is the case for OBC non- creamy layer, SC and ST categories. One of the reasons for the dip could be the absence of bonus marks, which the students were given in 2017 for three ambiguous questions that were asked in the paper. In the JEE Advanced 2018, Pranav Goyal from Panchkula district of Haryana bagged the All India Rank 1 spot scoring 337 out of 360. The second position was secured by Kota’s Sahil Jain while Delhi’s Kailash Gupta got the third spot. Meenal Parakh from Kota, securing the All India Rank of 6, is the topper among girls. With the results out, the qualifying candidates will now have to register for giving their preferences under the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA) which will begin on 15 June. It was for the first time that the JEE Advanced was held completely in the online mode. The JOSAA will announce the first seat allotment on 27 June. The final allotment for the seventh round will be announced on 18 July. Aspirants can attempt JEE Advanced a maximum of two times in two consecutive years. With inputs from PTI