JEE Main Cutoff 2026 might Witness a Slight Decline
CollegeDekho News Desk, New Delhi:
JEE Main 2026 Session 1 Exam will conclude on January 28 for Paper 1 B.Tech aspirants. Till January 22, over 5 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, and the difficulty level quoted by test takers turned out to be surprising. Usually, the JEE Mains exam difficulty level has been moderate over the years. However, out of 4 shifts that happened so far, 3 shifts turned out to be 'Moderate to Difficult' with Chemistry and Mathematics turning out to be the toughest subjects.
CollegeDekho conducted live sessions on JEE Mains exam analysis on January 21 and 22, along with the detailed
Toughest Shift of JEE Main 2026
. During these live sessions, the test takers responded that the paper was more difficult compared to the previous years. On the other hand,
subject experts too rated the paper as 'Moderate to Difficult' in Shift 1 & 2 of January 21 and Shift 2 on January 22
. All these factors are expected to have a direct impact on the JEE Main Cutoff 2026. Therefore, it is expected that there might be a slight decline in the JEE Main 2026 Cutoff Percentile this year.
The decline can be expected to be around the 0.1 to 0.2 percentile for all categories
. A clear understanding might only come once the Session 2 exam concludes.
JEE Main Expected Cutoff 2026
Here is the expected cutoff of JEE Main 2026, which has been predicted based on previous years' trends and the 2026 Session 1 paper difficulty level.| Category | Expected Cutoff Percentile | 2025 Cutoff Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| General | 93 Percentile | 93.1023262 |
| General EWS | 80.2 Percentile | 80.3830119 |
| OBC | 79.3 Percentile | 79.4313582 |
| SC | 61 Percentile | 61.1526933 |
| ST | 47.8 Percentile | 47.9026465 |
Also read | JEE Main 2026 Session 1 Chemistry Percentile Scores Likely to Witness Sharp Decline
As far as the Session 1 exam is concerned, the expected number of good attempts by the majority of test takers is around 40-45. which means, there is a chance to score 180+ marks in the exam, resuting to 99 percentile. The same was confirmed by a few test takers during CollegeDekho's JEE Main exam analysis live session on YouTube on January 21 and 22.
Also read | Majority Test Takers Expecting 150 Plus Marks in JEE Main 2026 Session 1: Is 99 percentile possible?
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