Jamshedpur: Suspense over, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the JEE Mains results on its website at 6.30pm on Monday.
From Jharkhand, around 7,000 engineering aspirants cleared JEE Mains to be able to appear in JEE Advanced, the gateway to the IITs of their dreams, to be held on May 20.
However, students who have scored a rank in the Mains can enter the NITs across the country.
The JEE Main 2018 offline exam was held on April 8 whereas the online exam was conducted on April 15 and April 16.
Jamshedpur boy Rahul Kumar Tiwary, a student of Jamshedpur Public School, Baridih, was state topper with an all-India rank of 22.
"I expected to be among the top 50, but this is a pleasant surprise," Rahul beamed. "But now, my focus is on doing well in IIT Advanced, which will ensure I get the stream of my choice at the IIT of my choice," said the teen who aspires to study computer science engineering in IIT-Mumbai.
Aryan, a student of Delhi Public School (DPS) in Bokaro, who secured an all-India rank of 47, also said he had to keep his head cool for JEE Advanced. "There is no shortcut to success," Aryan said.
The cut-off marks this time were lowest in five years for JEE Mains, which also awards negative marking.
Out of 360, the cut-off marks for the general stream was 74; for OBC 45; for SC 29 and for ST 24. The cut-off for persons with disability was -35 marks.
Last year, the cut-off marks for JEE Mains were 81 for general, 49 for OBC, 32 for SC and 27 for ST. For persons with disability, the cut-off was 1 mark last year.
"Cut-off is decreasing at JEE Mains every year as the level of questions is getting tougher. The overall results have been satisfactory in the state," said Shyam Bhushan, director of Narayana Academy, a premier JEE coaching institute in Jamshedpur.
In Ranchi, a senior official of FIITJEE Ranchi A.K. Datta said DPS-Ranchi boy Prateek Prawar ranked at 96 and Ramgarh boy Harshit Agarwal ranked at 122 were among the 416 students from their centre to clear JEE Mains. "Let's see how they do in Advanced," Datta said.
JEE Advanced 2018 paper 1 will be held from 9am to noon while paper 2 will be held from 2pm to 5pm. The exam will be conducted by seven zonal IITs.
Additional reporting by A.S.R.P. Mukesh and Praduman Choubey
