Students stand a better chance to crack the joint entrance examination 2008 (engineering) — the number of examinees has dropped and the number of seats is set to go up.

Officials said 76,450 candidates will take the test, scheduled to be held on April 20. Last year, the examinee count had crossed 1.10 lakh.

As 14 more engineering institutions are set to come up in the city and elsewhere in the state, the seat count will rise by 4,000 — to around 21,000.

The board conducting the test has decided not to open examination centres outside Bengal (except in Tripura), resulting in a decline in enrolment of students from other states.

“There is also another reason for the drop in the number of examinees. This year, we have set the upper age limit for the candidates for both medical and engineering tests at 24. Earlier, there was no such limit,” said an official of the joint entrance board.

Siddartha Dutta, the chairman of the joint entrance board, said all steps would be taken to prevent malpractice during the tests.

“For the first time, we have prepared CDs containing all information about the candidates. The CDs, copies of which will be distributed to all examination centres, will help officials prevent dummy candidates from writing the tests,” said Dutta.

Officials in the exam centres will not have to call the board if they suspect a candidate to be fake. “They can check it out themselves with the help of the CD,” said a board official.

The examination will be held on Sunday in 193 centres including three in Tripura.

The exams will start at 10am and continue till 5.15pm.

The biology test will be held between 10am and noon and the physics and chemistry test between 12.45pm and 2.45pm. The mathematics paper is scheduled between 3.15pm and 5.15pm.