JEE Main cutoff: What You Need to Know About Scores, Ranks, and Colleges

When you hear JEE Main cutoff, the minimum score required to qualify for JEE Advanced and admission to NITs, IIITs, and other GFTIs. Also known as JEE Main qualifying score, it changes every year based on exam difficulty, number of applicants, and seat availability. It’s not just a number—it’s the line between moving forward and starting over. If you’re aiming for an IIT, you need to clear JEE Main first. But even if you’re targeting an NIT or state engineering college, your cutoff determines your options.

The JEE Main rank, your position among all test-takers, calculated from your percentile score matters more than your raw score. A 95th percentile might get you into a top NIT one year and barely make the cutoff the next. That’s because cutoffs are percentile-based, not fixed marks. The IIT admission, the process of securing a seat in an Indian Institute of Technology after clearing JEE Main and JEE Advanced depends on your JEE Advanced rank, but without a good JEE Main score, you won’t even get to that stage. And if you’re not aiming for IITs? Your JEE Main score and rank are still your ticket to 30+ top engineering colleges across India.

What affects the cutoff? The number of students taking the exam, how hard the paper was, and how many seats are available in each category—General, OBC, SC, ST, EWS. For example, in 2024, the General category cutoff for JEE Main was around the 90th percentile, but for EWS, it dropped to the 75th. That’s not unfair—it’s designed to ensure access. But it means you can’t compare your score to last year’s without checking the category. And don’t assume a high score guarantees a top college. A 99.5 percentile might land you in NIT Trichy for Computer Science, but if you’re from a reserved category, you might get into a better branch at a different NIT with a lower percentile. It’s not just about being good—it’s about being strategic.

What do the posts here cover? Real stories from students who cracked JEE Main on their first try, breakdowns of which subjects carry the most weight, and how cutoffs shift between exam sessions. You’ll find insights from top scorers on what actually helped them clear the cutoff—not just how many hours they studied, but how they focused. There’s also data on which IITs and NITs offer the highest packages, so you can align your cutoff goal with your career path. No fluff. No myths. Just what you need to know to turn your score into a seat.