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Entrance Exams
Engineering
Engineering admission in India runs through a national examination, a handful of private-institution tests and a set of state common entrance tests. They cover the same physics, chemistry and mathematics, which is why candidates sit several — but they differ sharply in marking scheme, and that difference is where marks are most often lost.
Three of these examinations have no negative marking at all. Two deduct a mark against four and one a mark against three. One changes its rules every year deliberately. A candidate who carries one exam’s attempt discipline into another is guaranteed to leave marks on the table or throw them away.
Entrance exams · checked 19 September 2026
Entrance exams this month, from the official portals
Notifications, application windows, exam dates, answer keys and results as the conducting bodies published them, each with its source and a link to the exam guide.
Comparing
The marking schemes, side by side
| Exam | Marking | Pace | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|---|
| JEE Main | +4 / −1 | Moderate | Informed attempting; the ratio is forgiving |
| JEE Advanced | Variable each year | Demanding | Adaptability and depth of problem solving |
| BITSAT | +3 / −1 | Fast — 130 questions in 3 hours | Speed, plus English and logical reasoning |
| VITEEE | +4 / −1 (from 2026) | Brisk — 125 questions in 150 minutes | Speed with the same attempt discipline as JEE Main |
| COMEDK | No negative marking | Generous — a minute per question | Accuracy across three equally weighted subjects |
| AP / TG EAPCET | No negative marking | Comfortable | Mathematics, which is half the engineering paper |
2026 cycle
Engineering entrance notifications 2026: where each examination stands
Checked 15 September 2026 against jeemain.nta.nic.in, jeeadv.ac.in, admissions.bits-pilani.ac.in, viteee.vit.ac.in, comedk.org, cets.apsche.ap.gov.in and eapcet.tgche.ac.in.
| Examination | Notification | Examination | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| JEE Main 2026 | 31 October 2025 (Session 1); 1 February 2026 (Session 2) | 21–28 January and 2–8 April 2026, 19 shifts | Result 20 April 2026: 15,38,468 appeared, 26 at 100 percentile; JEE Advanced cut-off 93.41 (UR), 82.42 (EWS), 80.92 (OBC-NCL), 63.92 (SC), 52.02 (ST); JoSAA and CSAB complete. JEE Main 2027 expected October–November |
| JEE Advanced 2026 (IIT Roorkee) | 5 December 2025 (date); registration 23 April – 5 May | 17 May 2026, two papers | Result 1 June 2026: 56,880 of 1,79,694 qualified; CRL entry 92/360; topper 330. JoSAA five rounds to 20 July. 2027 organiser and date awaited |
| BITSAT 2026 | 15 December 2025 | Session 1 15–16 April; Session 2 24–27 May 2026 | Iterations I–IV from 20 June to 22 July; admission cycle closed. 2027 brochure expected December |
| VITEEE 2026 | November 2025; applications to 12 April | 28 April – 3 May 2026, booked slots | Results and counselling from the second week of May; admissions complete. 2027 notice expected November–December |
| COMEDK UGET 2026 | 8 January 2026; applications 3 February – 23 March | 9 May 2026 | Rank cards 29 May; counselling through round 4 (reporting to 8 September). 2027 notice expected December–January |
| AP EAPCET 2026 | 4 February 2026; applications to 24 March | Engineering 12–18 May; agriculture and pharmacy 19–20 May 2026 | Result 1 July 2026: 1,82,317 qualified in engineering (70.52 per cent); APSCHE counselling followed |
| TG EAPCET 2026 | 19 February 2026; applications to 4 April | Agriculture and pharmacy 4–5 May; engineering 9–11 May 2026 | Rank cards 17 May 2026: 2,18,998 of 2,82,195 qualified (72.28 per cent in engineering); TGCHE counselling followed |
| Examination | Paper | Marking | Decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| JEE Main | 75 compulsory questions, 300 marks, 3 hours — 20 MCQ + 5 numerical per subject | +4 / −1 in both sections | NTA percentile; best of two sessions; top 2,50,000 to JEE Advanced |
| JEE Advanced | Two 3-hour papers, 360 marks, mixed question types | Full, partial, zero and negative marks per section (2026: +3/−1, +4 partial/−1, +4/0) | Category rank lists after per-subject and aggregate minimums (CRL 92/360 in 2026) |
| BITSAT | 130 questions, 3 hours — Physics 30, Chemistry 30, English 10, Reasoning 20, Maths or Biology 40; 12 bonus | +3 / −1 | Higher of two session scores; iterations with programme cut-offs |
| VITEEE | 125 questions, 150 minutes — Maths or Biology 40, Physics 35, Chemistry 35, Aptitude 10, English 5 | +4 / −1 | All-India rank; VIT online counselling |
| COMEDK UGET | 180 questions, 3 hours — 60 each in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics | +1 / 0 | Percentile-based rank; COMEDK counselling rounds |
| AP EAPCET | 160 questions, 3 hours — Mathematics 80, Physics 40, Chemistry 40 | +1 / 0 | Normalised marks 75 per cent + intermediate marks 25 per cent; qualifying 40/160 |
| TG EAPCET | 160 questions, 3 hours — Mathematics 80, Physics 40, Chemistry 40 | +1 / 0 | Normalised marks alone; qualifying 40/160; 80 marks ≈ top 2,600 in 2025 |
Fees: JEE Main ₹1,000 (General male) to ₹500 per session; JEE Advanced ₹3,200 (₹1,600 for women, SC, ST and PwD); BITSAT ₹3,600 or ₹3,100 for one session; VITEEE ₹1,350; COMEDK ₹1,950; AP EAPCET ₹800 to ₹700; TG EAPCET ₹900 or ₹500 per stream. The exam guides below carry the full pattern tables, the 2026 result figures and cut-offs, eligibility, the procedure from form to counselling and free mock tests on the current patterns.
Strategy
What the differences mean in practice
- In COMEDK and the EAPCETs, never leave a blank — no penalty applies, so an unanswered question is a discarded mark. VITEEE joined the −1 examinations in 2026, so the careful skipping that serves you in JEE now applies there too.
- In JEE Main, attempt more than instinct suggests — four marks against one is forgiving enough that any genuine narrowing makes a guess worthwhile.
- In BITSAT, finishing is the challenge — and thirty of its questions are English and logical reasoning, which a JEE preparation covers not at all.
- In the EAPCETs, mathematics is half the paper — a weighting no national entrance uses, and one that should reshape your study allocation.
- In JEE Advanced, read the instruction page — the marking scheme is announced there and changes between years and between papers.
Planning
One preparation, several exams
Prepare for JEE Main as the base — it covers the science content of every other examination here at sufficient or greater depth. Then add what each specific test requires in the weeks before it: logical reasoning and English for BITSAT, discrete mathematics for VITEEE, mathematics weighting for the EAPCETs, and above all the correct attempt discipline for each marking scheme.
Exam guides
JEE Main JEE Advanced BITSAT VITEEE COMEDK UGET AP EAPCET TG EAPCET
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Questions
Engineering — FAQs
What are the engineering entrance exam dates for 2027?
None is notified yet as of mid-September 2026. On the 2026 calendar: JEE Main Session 1 was notified on 31 October 2025 for a January examination and Session 2 in April; JEE Advanced’s date was posted on 5 December 2025 for 17 May; BITSAT opened on 15 December 2025 for April and May sessions; COMEDK announced its 9 May date on 8 January 2026; AP EAPCET was notified on 4 February and TG EAPCET opened on 19 February for May examinations; VITEEE ran to 12 April for a late-April window. The 2027 notices are expected on the same timetable.
When is the JEE 2027 exam date, and which IIT conducts JEE Advanced 2027?
Neither is posted yet as of 18 September 2026. NTA’s examination calendar of 16 September proposes JEE Main 2027 Session 1 for 22–24 and 28–30 January 2027, with 31 January in reserve, and the registration notice should follow in late October or November on jeemain.nta.nic.in; Session 2 is expected in April. JEE Advanced 2027 is expected to be organised by IIT Delhi on the seven-IIT rotation, with the date announced on jeeadv.ac.in in early December and the examination on a Sunday in late May 2027 — the 2026 date was posted on 5 December 2025.
Which engineering entrance exams are there after 12th, other than JEE?
For the private institutions with their own tests: BITSAT for the BITS campuses, VITEEE for VIT, and COMEDK UGET for Karnataka’s private colleges, along with SRMJEEE, MET (Manipal), KIITEE and AEEE (Amrita). For the state universities and colleges: AP EAPCET and TG EAPCET (still searched as AP EAMCET and TS EAMCET), and outside the two Telugu states MHT CET, KCET, WBJEE, KEAM, TNEA (on class 12 marks) and the JEE Main-based counselling that Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand use. All of them test physics, chemistry and mathematics from the class 11–12 syllabus, so one JEE Main preparation covers the content; what differs is the marking scheme and the extra sections some add.
What were the JEE Main and JEE Advanced 2026 cut-offs?
JEE Main’s category-wise NTA-score cut-offs for the top 2,50,000 were 93.4123549 percentile (UR), 82.4164528 (EWS), 80.9232583 (OBC-NCL), 63.9172792 (SC), 52.0174712 (ST) and 0.0023186 (UR-PwBD). JEE Advanced 2026’s rank-list minimums were 92 aggregate and 8 per subject out of 360 for the Common Rank List, 82 and 7 for OBC-NCL and EWS, and 46 and 4 for SC, ST and the PwD lists; 56,880 of 1,79,694 candidates qualified and the topper scored 330.
Can one preparation cover all engineering entrance exams?
The science content, yes — a proper JEE Main preparation covers physics, chemistry and mathematics at sufficient or greater depth for every other engineering entrance. What it does not cover is each exam’s specifics: BITSAT’s English and logical reasoning sections, VITEEE’s discrete mathematics, the EAPCETs’ mathematics-heavy weighting, and above all the different marking schemes, which require genuinely different attempt discipline.
Which engineering entrance exams have no negative marking?
COMEDK UGET and both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana EAPCETs apply no deduction for wrong answers. In these, leaving a question unanswered is a guaranteed loss where a guess costs nothing — yet candidates trained on JEE-style papers routinely submit them with blanks. VITEEE, which had no deduction in earlier cycles, now takes one mark for a wrong answer against four for a correct one; JEE Main is +4/−1, BITSAT +3/−1 and JEE Advanced varies by section. Practising with the correct rule for each is how you retrain the instinct.
How is JEE Advanced different from JEE Main?
The syllabi overlap in outline but not exactly, and the depth differs sharply. JEE Main questions generally test one concept at a time and reward speed and accuracy; JEE Advanced questions typically combine two or three concepts and require multi-step reasoning on problems that cannot be answered by recognising a familiar type. Advanced also uses a marking scheme that changes deliberately between years and between its two papers, which makes adaptability part of what it examines.
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