Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Thursday announced the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2021 examination date and the eligibility criteria for admission into Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The exam will be held on July 3 while the 75 percent eligibility criteria will not be applicable this year.

“JEE-Advanced will be conducted by IIT Kharagpur on July 3. The relaxation in admission requirement of 75 per cent marks in class 12 which was announced last year in view of COVID-19 pandemic will be offered this year as well,” Nishank said.The exam will be conducted by IIT Kharagpur.

For admissions to IITs, apart from qualifying the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced, the candidates are required to secure either minimum 75 per cent marks in class 12 board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations.

The JEE Advanced 2021 would be attempted by those who had qualified the JEE Mains last year but could not appear for the next exams due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a one-time exception, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has allowed the latter BTech candidates to directly appear for JEE Advanced 2021.

Ahead of Pokhriyal’s announcement, candidates have been requesting to scrap 75 percent criteria for JEE Mains, grant multiple attempts for JEE Advanced 2021.

The JEE Main 2021 will be conducted four times this year, as per the suggestions of many students and parents.

The first attempt of the exam will be from February 23 to 26. The last date to register online is January 16. Candidates will now have a choice to attempts only 75 questions out of the 90 questions present in the paper.