CBSE has announced the details of the first Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) MAIN 2013. The information regarding various aspects of JEE MAIN like eligibility criteria, paper pattern,syllabus,marking scheme, final merit list etc., has been clearly spelt out by the CBSE, who has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting JEE MAIN 2013.

General perception of the student community is that JEE MAIN is AIEEE in its new avatar. AIEEE in its previous form had no bearing on the IIT admissions, had given no weightage to the class XII board marks. But from 2013, JEE MAIN, apart from the admissions into the NITs,IIITs,possibly other CFTIs, is also the first tier of the two-tier IIT selection process. 

A candidate's All India Rank(AIR) will be a combination of 40% weightage to normalised 10+2 or other equivalent qualifying examination score and 60% weightage to his JEE MAIN score. 

All NITs,IIITs admit students based on their AIR JEE MAIN ranks . Some of the CFTIs and other participating institutes may also use the JEE MAIN AIR ranks. 

In case any State opts to admit students using JEE MAIN exam in the engineering Colleges affiliated to state Universities where States require separate merit list to be provided based on relative weightages adopted by the states, then the merit list shall be prepared with such relative weightages as may be indicated by States. The examination will be conducted in the Regional Languages of the State(s) on the requests of such State(s) 

JEE MAIN 2013 forms are available at the website,www.jeemain-edu.in. from Nov,1st,2012. The forms have to be filled up online only since they are not available offline. CBSE has announced the setting up of facilitation centres that will assist students in the online form filling without any charge. 

Click here for the list of facilitation centres 

The JEE MAIN syllabus is same as last year's AIEEE syllabus. The syllabus of JEE ADVANCED will be made available shortly at http://jee.iitd.ac.in. Both are expected to be almost similar but students need to be cautious and should refer to the official syllabii of both the exams.