State JEE candidates this year were tested on 238 marks instead of the scheduled 250 following the withdrawal of questions that the authorities realised were wrong.

The JEE board said it had scrapped the questions after reviewing suggestions of external experts on the model answers, also known as “answer keys”, posted on its website. There was a window of eight days between May 17 and 24, during which anyone could email their suggestions to the board.

Based on the feedback, two questions each in maths and physics and three in chemistry were withdrawn. The answers of a physics question carrying multiple correct options were altered following the experts’ suggestions.

The board had mentioned the changes when it posted the “frozen” — or final — answers on its website www.wbjeeb.nic.in after the publication of results on June 8.

The April 21 Bengal JEE was originally of 250 marks — 100 for mathematics, and 75 each for physics and chemistry.

“We withdrew the questions after reviewing suggestions from external experts. Some experts said a few answer keys were wrong as the questions were incorrect. The suggestions were reviewed by our experts and the questions were withdrawn,” said JEE board chairman Bhaskar Gupta.

A board official pointed out that 3 marks each were dropped in physics and maths and 6 in chemistry. Of the two withdrawn questions in maths and physics, one carried one mark and the other two marks. In chemistry, all three withdrawn questions were of 2 marks each.

“The feedback said the correct answers in chemistry in respect to two questions could be written only if the examinees were allowed to carry calculators or notepads for drawing the log table inside the examination hall. But we don’t allow calculators or notepads in the hall. So the questions were dropped,” said the official.

Students said in the feedback that a question each in physics and chemistry mentioned an abnormal data and so the answer keys were incorrect. The observations were found to be valid.

“A question in physics was withdrawn as external experts pointed out that the answer options in the Bengali version were wrong. Of the two questions withdrawn in maths, one was incorrect and the answer options of the other in both English and Bengali were wrong,” said the member.

Last year, which saw the introduction of the board’s practice to invite feedback on model answers, only two questions in maths were withdrawn.

A JU teacher welcomed the board’s move as it makes the evaluation process more transparent. “Earlier, students used to suffer as the board never entertained any query that would challenge the evaluation. If those setting questions were at fault, there was no system to amend that. But now examinees get to know how they have been evaluated and can suggest changes in evaluation,” said the teacher.

The percentage of highest marks in the state JEE dropped to 85 from last year’s 98, with board insiders attributing the fall mostly to the introduction of questions carrying multiple correct answers.

“We had set five questions in each subject that had multiple correct answers. Besides, questions were set in a way that the examinees could not get through by guessing answers,” said Gupta.