The JEE Advanced 2021 exams for admission to the IITs will be held on July 3 and the 75% eligibility criteria have been scrapped for this year, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced on Thursday. Pokhriyal said the decision to scrap the eligibility criteria has been taken for the convenience of students amid the Covid-19 crisis.

In 2020 as well, the eligibility criteria of scoring minimum 75% aggregate marks in Class 12 exam was scrapped due to the pandemic-related stress on students.

Addressing a webinar to reveal the dates of JEE Advanced, Pokhriyal informed that this year, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, will conduct the nationwide entrance test.

Candidates must qualify JEE Main before appearing for the JEE Advanced. The first edition of the Joint Entrance Examination-Mains or JEE-Mains will be held from February 23 to February 26, followed by rounds in March, April and May. The application process for JEE Main 2021 has already begun and will last till January 16.

Multiple sessions will help students to improve on their mistakes. Even if a student appears in all four sessions, his/ her best marks out of the four exams will be considered for the result, the minister has said earlier.

Only JEE Advanced-qualified candidates are allowed to appear for the admission process of the IITs. The counselling and seat allotment process is conducted by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA). The counselling process is conducted on the basis of the candidate’s score in the JEE Advanced.