New Delhi, Nov. 10: The IITs have finalised a new formula to set cutoffs in their entrance examination, aimed at raising the minimum marks required in each of the three subjects to be for admission.

The new formula is detailed in the information brochure for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination, 2009, available from today on the JEE website.

The decision follows controversies that have overshadowed the admission process to the elite institutes over the past two years.

In 2006, the IITs violated their own stated cutoff formula, denying admission to 994 students who would have qualified had the official formula been followed. The Telegraph had reported, on August 6, 2007, the mismatch between the cutoffs the IITs actually used and the cutoffs obtained under the formula they claimed to have used.

The official formula involved calculating the average scores of all candidates in their physics, chemistry and mathematics papers. A separate statistical quantity called the “standard deviation” (SD) was to be calculated for each subject. The SD was then to be subtracted from the average for each subject to arrive at the subject cutoffs.

In 2007, following the previous year’s controversy, the IITs simplified their cutoff determination procedure. Students in the top 80 per cent in each of the three subjects were considered for admission.

This, however, led to charges that almost all students — even those with relatively poor marks in some or all subjects — were being considered for admission, implying that the subject cutoffs had effectively become redundant as a screening process.

The same procedure was followed in 2008. In 2009, however, the IITs will be using a modified form of the official 2006 formula.

The average physics, chemistry and mathematics scores of all students who attempt the three subjects will be calculated. These averages will serve as subject cutoffs.

The JEE consists of two papers carrying questions on all three subjects. A student’s score in a particular subject will be calculated as the sum of his scores in that subject in the two papers.