New Delhi, June 20: A proposal informally communicated to IIT faculty suggests that the present 60 per cent eligibility cut-off for admission into IITs be replaced by top 20 percentile holders of respective school boards.

The percentile criterion along with performance in the JEE-Main, the first-round test of a proposed single entrance exam, will be used for selecting around 50,000 students. Their score in the JEE-Advanced, the second-round exam, will be considered to draw up the all-India rank list that will be used for actual admission of students into the IITs.

The informal proposal communicated by the Joint Admission Board (JAB), the body comprising IIT directors, was today discussed by the faculty associations of IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur, sources told The Telegraph.

Although IIT faculty found the percentile-based cut-off more “acceptable” than the proposed equal weightage to JEE Main scores and Class XII board exam marks, they do not want to give any formal reply to the JAB or the HRD ministry unless they get an official written communication.

At present, the eligibility cut-off for the IITs is 60 per cent in the Class XII board exams. Only an aspirant who has cleared the IIT-JEE and scored at least 60 per cent marks in the board exam is considered for admission.

According to the informal proposal, a student will have to be among the top 20 percentile holders of his/her respective board to be eligible for admission into IITs.

Nearly 50,000 students would be selected in the first filter of the JEE-Main depending on their scores and on condition that they are among the top 20 percentile holders of their respective boards.

The scores of these students in the JEE-Advanced would be considered while preparing the all-India rank list on the basis of which actual admission into the IITs will take place, a source said.

The percentile score of a student would be obtained by dividing the number of students below him or her with the number who appeared for the test, and then multiplying the ratio by 100. “In a state board like that of Bengal, if the topper’s score is 90 per cent, then the top 20 percentile holders may include students securing up to around 60 per cent,” an IIT professor said.

The percentile system may allow almost a similar number of students that the 60 per cent cut-off allowed, he said. But this would be different from the weightage procedure approved by the IIT Council.

On May 28, the council had approved a proposal that the JEE would be a two-tier test comprising the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced. Both would be objective-type exams to be held on the same day. Weightage would be given to Class XII board marks of a student for the first screening.

“The council’s decision that the new JEE would give weightage to board marks means that a better-scoring student from some school board has a better chance of clearing the screening. Since school boards follow differing assessment procedures, faculty members were opposed to weightage,” the professor said.