Students aspiring to medical and engineering seats in Bengal can make unlimited attempts to crack the state-level Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

“We have abolished the upper age limit of 24 for JEE with effect from 2009,” a spokesperson for the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Board announced after a meeting on Thursday.

The lower age limit remains 17. A student was previously allowed a maximum of three attempts.

Another decision taken at the meeting was to hold next year’s exams on April 19, the spokesperson said.

A review committee had made several suggestions to the board, most of which are still under consideration. “We felt it necessary to abolish the upper age limit immediately because other boards do not have one. There is no upper age limit for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination and the All India Pre-Medical Tests conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education,” said the JEE board chairman, Siddhartha Dutta.

One of the proposals to be kept on hold was reduction of the number of multiple choice questions. The board decided to persist with the 80:20 ratio of multiple choice and short-answer questions. A section of the review committee had suggested an 80:60 pattern, while some recommended returning to the pre-2005 system when students didn't have the advantage of multiple choices.

“The proposals are still under consideration. The next JEE will be held in April 2009 and the members felt that students would be inconvenienced if the pattern of question papers was to be changed at this stage,” Dutta said.

All four papers — mathematics, physics, chemistry and biological sciences — will continue to be held on the same day. But the examinations will start at 9.30am, an hour earlier than previous years.

Students will have to write the physics and chemistry examinations on separate sheets. Those who took the test this year had answered the physics and chemistry questions on a single sheet.