IIT JAM 2021 Exam Pattern differs depending on the courses chosen by the candidates. The IISc and IITs conduct the IIT JAM (Joint Admission Test for M.Sc.), a national level entrance test on an alternate basis. IISC, Bangalore shall conduct the test for the academic year 2021. Candidates need to qualify IIT JAM exam in order to obtain admission in PG and PhD courses at IITs and IISc. This article furnishes details about IIT JAM 2021 Exam Pattern.
IIT JAM 2021 Exam Pattern
IIT JAM 2021 Exam consists of seven papers. The examination shall be supervised through online mode (computer-based test) on 14th February 2021. The medium of the exam paper shall be in English. The exam duration is three hours, and the question paper is split into three sections, i.e. section A, section B & section C. The relevant instructions related to the sections are disclosed below for candidates’ perusal:
Section – A
This section is composed of 30 Multiple Choice Questions. Each question carries either one or two marks, and four options shall be provided out of which the candidates are supposed to select the right answer.
Section – B
This section is composed of 10 Multiple Select Questions. Each question carries two marks, and four options shall be provided out of which one or more options may be correct. Candidates shall be awarded full marks if all the marked answers are accurate. Every correct answer gains two marks. The below tabulation represents the exam pattern:
| Sections | No. of Questions | Question Type | Total Marks |
| Section I | 30 | Multiple choice questions | 50 |
| Section II | 10 | Multiple choice questions | 20 |
| Section III | 20 | Numerical answer type questions | 30 |
| Total | 60 | — | 100 |
Section – C
This section is composed of 20 NAT (Numerical Answer Type) questions. Each question carries either one or two marks. Candidates are supposed to enter their answer through the virtual numeric keyboard provided on the screen, and these sort of questions shall not contain any options.
IIT JAM 2021 Marking Scheme
All three sections put together contributes to 60 questions carrying 100 marks. No negative marking is applied in section B & C, but negative marking is present in section A. In section A, for 1 mark question, 1/3 mark is reduced for the wrong answer and for 2 marks questions, 2/3 mark is reduced. No marks shall be reduced for un-attempted questions.
IIT JAM 2021 Exam Centers
The exam centres for IIT JAM are listed below:
- IISc Bangalore: Bengaluru, Hubli, Hyderabad, Kannur, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Palakkad, Trissur
- IIT Bombay: Ahmedabad, Goa, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Nasik Pune, Vadodara
- IIT Delhi: Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hisar, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Jodhpur, New Delhi
- IIT Guwahati: Asansol-Durgapur, Dhanbad, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Jorhat, Kalyani, Patna, Siliguri
- IIT Kanpur: Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, Bhopal, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi
- IIT Kharagpur: Bhubaneswar, Kharagpur, Kolkata, Raipur, Ranchi, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam
- IIT Madras: Chennai, Coimbatore, Ernakulam, Kollam, Kottayam, Madurai,
Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Warangal, Tirupati - IIT Roorkee: Dehradun, Jalandhar, Kurukshetra, NOIDA, Mohali, Moradabad, Roorkee