New Delhi, June 3: The IITs have admitted that this year’s Joint Entrance Examination Advanced papers had four questions with more than one correct answer.
The JEE Main, the first test of the two-tier exam system started last year, too had four ambiguous questions this year. JEE Main is conducted by CBSE and JEE Advanced by the IITs.
More than one correct answer to multiple-choice questions would have confused students and taken up a lot of time. Each student is required to blacken one option that he/she thinks is the answer.
According to IIT-JEE sources, question no. 18 of the physics paper and question nos. 26, 29 and 33 in the chemistry paper were ambiguous. Each question carried three marks. For chemistry question no. 33, the IITs announced two correct answers — options 6 and 7.
The IIT JEE authorities said students who had marked either of the two correct answers would get full marks.
Some candidates are, however, unhappy. One said he attempted two questions and found two correct answers for each. But he did not mark any, assuming he had done them wrong.
“I did not blacken any answer options since I did not get a single answer. Nobody would imagine that a question can have two correct answers. I spent over 10 minutes on each,” the candidate said.
Of the two-tier exam system, the JEE Main is the first one taken by about 13 lakh students. The top 1.5 lakh then take the JEE Advanced. The meritorious students of the second exam are eligible for admission to 10,000 seats in 16 IITs and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.
The IITs identified the ambiguous questions before releasing the answer keys. Experts analysed the keys and found problems with the questions. Students can examine the answer keys and lodge a complaint if they find any problem with any question.
“The questions are not wrong. They have alternative answers. If a student has blackened either of those answers, he will get marks. Students will not be victimised,” said a teacher associated with JEE Advanced.
An IIT faculty said the question papers were set by experts with limited time at their disposal. Care was taken to check ambiguities but problems remained with some questions, he said.
Sources said a team of 60 teachers of physics, chemistry and math was involved in setting question papers this year.
