Around 5,000 wannabe IITians appeared for the JEE Advanced examination on Sunday from Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro, and most of them had a tough time answering the physics section.

Both Paper I and Paper 11 comprised 54 questions each from physics, chemistry and mathematics, with an aggregate of 366 marks. Candidates overall found the first paper easier, but physics in both paper stumped many.

"The questions were quite unexpected; not what we had prepared for. However, I gave it my best shot and am keeping my fingers crossed," said Aditya Singh, a student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Tatanagar.

Another candidate appearing for the common engineering entrance at DBMS English School exam centre echoed Aditya. "I felt the second paper question pattern was lengthy. Time management (three hours for each paper) was a problem," said Subhas Ranjan.

Shyam Bhushan, director of Narayana IIT Academy that coaches candidates for JEE, agreed that physics questions were difficult in both papers. "The worse thing was negative marking in various sections, not to forget step marking too. Students may find it difficult to calculate their scores," he said.

The papers consisted of multiple choice, single choice and column matching questions. The new pattern has been in place since 2013. The results for JEE Advanced will be declared on June 11.

Results of board examinations will not be considered in rankings this year, but students who do not score 75 per cent in their boards will not make it to any IIT.

In Ranchi, JEE Advanced was conducted at seven centres - JVM-Shyamali, Delhi Public School, Surendranath Centenary School, Vivekanand Vidya Mandir, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Gossner College and DAV-Bariatu.

"Examinations were conducted smoothly at our centre amid tight security arrangements," said A.K. Singh, principal of JVM.

The three centres in Jamshedpur were DBMS English School, DBMS Kadma High School and Shiksha Niketan.