JEE Mains and JEE Advanced are the two most popular and prominent national engineering entrance exams in India. The scores in these exams are used to give admissions in the majority of colleges such as CFTIs, NITs, IITs, IIITs and private colleges. So, every year millions of students get enrolled in online entrance coaching for JEE. Hence, every year lakhs of students apply for both of them.
First, they have to take the JEE Main exam and only after they have qualified it, they are allowed to take the JEE Advanced Exam. JEE Advanced is the entry-level exam for admission in IITs and ISM Dhanbad – some of the most prestigious engineering colleges in India.
So, the competition is intense and the students have to prepare a lot in order to qualify these exams. While both of these exams have a similar syllabus and there are only a few topics that are different in each one, the exams vary a lot. Hence, most of the students fail to recognize what makes both of them different from each other and how they can prepare for both the exams.
Therefore, we are going to share some of the key differences in the preparation of JEE Mains and JEE Advanced. Read them carefully and make sure you follow them to keep your exam preparation to the point.
JEE Mains tests the basic concepts and JEE Advanced tests application and analytical skills
While most of the questions in JEE Mains are based on the direct application of formulas, this is not the case with JEE Advanced. JEE Mains exam tests the understanding of basic concepts and students can rely on the coaching material and some of the good reference books for the preparation. So, as long as you are able to memorize formulas and practice the questions on them, you are all set.
On the other hand, when it comes to JEE Advanced, the questions become a bit more difficult and require a deep understanding of the concepts. Also, they test your analytical skills and application of basic concepts. So, simply learning the short cuts to solve questions or cramming the formulas for solving the direct questions is not enough. You have to be extremely good at problem-solving if you want to ace this exam.
JEE Mains has a common MCQ pattern, but JEE Advanced has many different types
While it might seem that both the exams have the standard MCQ pattern, things are actually different. In JEE Advanced, you will encounter some questions that have more than one option correct and you have to find out all of them. The final marks for such questions are decided as fractions calculated on the basis of the number of right answers you identify.
Lots of questions in JEE Advanced test the reasoning (relevant to the syllabus) and you have to be extremely good at problem-solving. There can be questions with more weightage that require multi-step solutions instead of simple formula-based calculations.
JEE Mains is of qualifying nature, while JEE Advanced is of selective nature
Students qualifying JEE Mains are divided into two categories – JEE Advanced candidates (top rankers) and students eligible for admissions in different engineering colleges apart from IITs and ISM Dhanbad. So, out of both, JEE Mains has a qualifying nature while JEE Advanced is of selective nature. So, even if you are unable to give your best shot at the JEE Advanced, if you qualify JEE Main you are set to get admissions in engineering courses. Further, as the number of seats under JEE Main is huge; the competition is not as fierce as that of JEE Advanced where more than 2 lakh students are competing for a few thousand seats.
There are some topics that are in the JEE Mains syllabus and not included in the JEE Advanced syllabus. Hence, we recommend keeping a tab on them so as to avoid missing them while preparing for the exam.
JEE Advanced syllabus topics that are absent in JEE Main:
JEE Main topics that are not included in JEE Advanced:
So, dear students, make sure you take note of these pointers and keep your exam preparation up to the mark for both the exams.