Exam Prep

JEE Main Marking Scheme & Normalisation Explained (2026)

By the Mentora Academic Team · Updated 1 August 2026 · 7 min read

JEE Main Paper 1 is marked out of 300 across 75 questions — 25 each in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Every question, including the numerical (Section B) ones, carries +4 for a correct answer and −1 for a wrong one. NTA then converts your raw marks into a normalised percentile, not a simple percentage.

JEE Main confuses many students in two ways: the marking of the numerical section, and the difference between marks, percentile and rank. This guide clears up both, using the confirmed 2026 pattern.

How is JEE Main scored in 2026?

JEE Main Paper 1 (B.E./B.Tech) has 75 questions to attempt, for 300 marks. Each subject has 25 questions — 20 multiple-choice (Section A) and 5 numerical-value (Section B):

• Correct answer: +4 marks
• Wrong answer: −1 mark
• Unattempted: 0 marks

So your raw score = (correct × 4) − (wrong × 1), out of 300. Try it with the JEE score calculator.

Do the numerical (Section B) questions have negative marking?

Yes — since 2025 this is one of the most important changes. Section B used to offer a choice (attempt any 5 of 10, with no negative marking). Now there are 5 numerical questions per subject and all are compulsory, with the same −1 penalty for a wrong answer as the MCQs. That means a careless numerical answer costs you a mark just like a wrong MCQ, so you should double-check the value and its rounding before entering it.

What is percentile, and how does NTA normalise scores?

JEE Main is held in multiple sessions and multiple shifts, and no two shifts are exactly equally difficult. To be fair, NTA does not rank you on raw marks — it converts each candidate’s marks into a percentile score within their own shift. Your percentile is the percentage of candidates in that shift who scored equal to or less than you. The highest scorer in every shift gets a percentile close to 100, and these normalised percentiles are then merged across all sessions to produce your overall result and rank.

Two consequences follow. First, percentile is not percentage — a 99 percentile does not mean 99% marks; it means you did better than about 99% of candidates. Second, because normalisation depends on how everyone in your shift performed, the exact marks needed for a given percentile change every year and cannot be predicted precisely in advance.

Percentile vs rank vs marks — how do they differ?

• Marks are your raw score out of 300, straight from the marking scheme.
• Percentile is your normalised standing within your shift — a fair way to compare across sessions of different difficulty.
• Rank (the All India Rank) is your position once everyone’s percentiles are merged and ordered; it is what counselling uses.

For planning, calculate your likely marks from the answer key, then use previous years’ marks-vs-percentile trends only as a rough guide — never as a guarantee.