The JEE paper held in April 2018 in the offline mode. Here is a complete analysis of the offline mode. The JEE Main Exam is one of the most challenging exams in India. It is given by lakhs of candidates every year to get admissions in institutes like IIT’s, NIT’s, GFTI and ISM.
JEE Main paper pattern
The duration of the JEE Main exam was three hours. At various centers, the offline exam was held between 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. It had a total of 90 questions of 4 marks each. There were three main sections were physics, chemistry, and maths with equal weightage. All questions were objective. The marking scheme was 4 marks for each correct answer and deduction of 1 mark for each wrong answer from the main score.
Difficulty level
The difficulty level was similar to last two year’s exams. The exam was moderately easy and according to the reviews the students did not find any difficulty in completing the paper.
| Subject | Easy | Moderate | Difficult | Total |
| Chemistry | 15 | 10 | 5 | 30 |
| Maths | 17 | 11 | 2 | 30 |
| Physics | 10 | 19 | 1 | 30 |
| Total | 42 | 40 | 8 | 90 |
Subject wise analysis
Physics
The physics paper was the toughest among the three. Both theory based and calculative questions were asked. 17 questions were asked from 12th class syllabus and 13 questions were asked from the 11th class syllabus. The question 6 of set B was a pulley-based question where minimum mass was required. The initial assessment suggested that none of the options were right for this question.
Here is a table of marks allocation to various topics of Physics:
| Topic | Number of questions | Marks |
| Mechanics | 11 | 44 |
| Electrodynamics | 12 | 48 |
| Thermodynamics and Kinetic theory | 2 | 8 |
| Optics and Wave optics | 2 | 8 |
| Modern Physics and Nuclear Physics | 3 | 12 |
Chemistry
Chemistry was comparatively among the three. It was lengthy compared to other sections. 14 questions were asked from the 12th class syllabus and 16 questions were asked from the 11th class syllabus. The toughest questions were asked from topics Alcohols, Phenols and Ether and coordination compounds while the easiest ones were from the topics Bio-molecules, Chemistry in everyday life, Electrochemistry and Solid state solutions.
The allotment of marks was done as below:
| Topics | Number of questions | Marks |
| Organic Chemistry | 11 | 44 |
| Inorganic Chemistry | 7 | 28 |
| Physical Chemistry | 12 | 48 |
Mathematics
Most questions asked were calculative. 10 questions were asked from the 12th class syllabus and 20 questions were asked from the 11th class syllabus.
The section comprised of 3 difficult, 14 moderate and 13 easy questions. The tough questions were asked from the topics Hyperbola, Parabola, Sets and Relations, and Functions. Easy questions were asked from the topics Mathematical Induction and Reasoning, Parabola, Permutation and Combinations, Quadratic Equations, Sequence and Series, Statistics and Trigonometry.
The easy questions were also asked from some 12th standard topics like 3D Geometry, Determinants and Differential Equations.
The breakup of various marks according to topics is given below:
| Topic | Number of questions | Marks |
| Algebra | 14 | 56 |
| Calculus | 7 | 28 |
| Trigonometry | 2 | 8 |
| Conics | 4 | 16 |
| Vector Algebra | 3 | 12 |
Reviews from various students
According to majority of the students the paper was moderately easy with chemistry being the easiest. But still the reviews varied from student to student. Some found physics easiest and chemistry the most difficult one.
Neena Nandeshwar commented “Chemistry was tough, Maths was lengthy and Physics was average”.
Another student said “I would not say paper was hilariously tough. However, mathematics was lengthy and the questions on series were disturbing. One had to really choose questions on physics to score from. Chemistry concentrated on the lesser important chapters.”
Aachkal Achkal said “As per JEE Main circular 2018, there will be proportional distribution of marks from every chapter of the chemistry, but in reality not even a single question was asked from the topics like Atomic Structure, Polymer, Biomolecule and Chemistry in Everyday life”.
About 13 lakh candidates appeared in the JEE main exam in the month of April and out of these only 2.2 lakh were shortlisted to appear in the JEE Advanced 2018. The JEE Main exam in the pen and paper mode was conducted at various different centres in 112 cities throughout the country. The cut off of the JEE Main Exam 2018 was 74 for the Common Rank List. The cut off for SC, ST, OBC-NSL and PWC was 29, 24, 45 and -35. The cut off depends on the number of students appearing for the exam, number of available seats, level of difficulty and performance of the candidate.
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