National Testing Agency (NTA) began receiving applications for JEE Main exam online from Tuesday. Recently, the agency announced some major changes in the exam pattern along with opening the application portal.
NTA has introduced a new paper exclusively for B.Planning courses. Students can now choose to appear for all three papers, i.e., Paper 1 for B.Tech or Paper 2 for B.Arch, and Paper 3 for B.Planning, or any two, or one paper, as per their choice.
NTA increased the number of papers from two to three from the second year of conducting the exam. Earlier, JEE Main had two papers. Paper 1 for students who wanted to apply for B.Tech courses and Paper 2 for students who wanted to apply for B.Arch or B.Planning courses offered by IIT, NIT, or centrally funded technical institutes.
Paper 2, which is for B.Arch courses will comprise three sections. Part I will be Mathematics, Part II will be Aptitude Test (computer-based) and Part III, will be Drawing Test (pen-paper based).
Also Read: JEE Main Paper 2020: Major changes in exam pattern announced
Speaking of Paper 3, which is for B.Planning courses, the first two sections will be identical to as that of B.Arch. Only Part III will have planning based questions. The entire question paper for B.Planning will be computer-based.
Last year, the agency decided to conduct JEE Main exam twice a year keeping in mind the students who would not be able to perform to the best of their ability in the first attempt.
Regarding the concern of the students on if they should appear for one paper or both the papers post the introduction of separate paper for B.Arch, experts advise that students need to make a decision based on their career objectives. B. Arch is a 5-year and B.Planning is a 4-year duration course. Architecture would deal with building whereas a planner would be focused on creating a layout for a city or a complex.
Students are also advised to pay attention to the institutes which offer B.Arch and B.Planning programs.
