IIT cut-off shoots up this year

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The merit list cut-off mark for this year’s counselling to Indian Institute of Technology has increased drastically from last year’s 190 to 229 for the general category.

Prof V. Kamakoti, chairman, joint entrance examination (JEE) 2011 in IIT Madras, told Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday that as the number of negative markings in this year’s JEE was less and the questions were tougher than last year’s, the cut-off mark increased.

“Of the 4,68,240 students who appeared for JEE this year, 13,602 cleared the examination for 9,618 seats of which 2,195 students (about 23 per cent of the total number) were from the Madras zone consisting of Tamil Nadu, Puducher-ry, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This year, other backward caste (OBC) and scheduled caste students performed well,” he said.

This year, there is no SC preparatory list as the number of successful SC candidates is more than the available SC seats.

A press release from IIT Kanpur, the organising IIT for JEE this year, said 4,332 students in the open category, 2,545 students belonging to OBC, 1,950 from SC, 645 ST and 146 physically challenged students passed the exam.