JIPMER Eligibility and Paper Pattern Changed; Check, What’s New

Among the upcoming medical entrance exams, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research or JIPMER MBBS 2018 is the latest one, scheduled to be held on June 03 this year. Recently, the official prospectus and application form for JIPMER 2018 was also released on its official website.

Through this exam, the Institute will select candidates for its 200 MBBS seats, which is further divided between its two campuses, i.e. JIPMER Puducherry (150) and JIPMER Karaikal (50). Both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in Medicine are provided here including MBBS, MD, B.Sc., M.Sc. and M.S. courses in 43+ disciplines.

With the exam approaching soon, candidates need to be updated regarding the latest notifications or updates. For that matter, there have been quite a few changes in the exam pattern, number of exam cities, application fees, seat reservation, eligibility criteria etc. and the same has been mentioned below.

Eligibility Criteria

The first change for JIPMER MBBS 2018 is in its eligibility criteria for qualifying exam subjects and marks. Candidates must have passed in Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology and English in Class 12 exam along with 50% aggregate pass in PCB subjects in General category, 45% aggregate pass in OPH or Differently abled category. However, 40% in SC, ST and OBC category at class 12 level was the previous requirement till last year.

From this year onwards, however the qualifying marks have been changed to 60% pass in PCB subjects for General category and 50% pass for SC/ST, OBC, Differently abled/OPH categories in PCB subjects at class 12 qualifying exam. It has been toned down and made simpler. However the number and name of subjects remain unchanged from last year.

On the other hand, the age criteria remains the same; 17 years of age, born on or before 1st January, 2002 and no other upper age limit.Also, candidates who are writing the qualifying exam or yet to write it in March or April can also apply for this exam, provided that their exam results have not been published and they fulfil the age and nationality criteria (Indian / Overseas Citizen of India).

Application Fees and Documentation

The second change to be understood is the amount of application fees to be paid by candidates. Until last year, the fees included an amount of Rs 1200 for General and OBC candidates, Rs 1000 for SC/ ST candidates while for NRI/OCI category, it was Rs. 2,500.

This year, a hike in same was witnessed. Presently, it is Rs. 1,500 for General and OBC candidates, Rs. 1,200 for SC/ST candidates and Rs. 3,000 for the NRI/OCI candidates. Differently abled or OPH candidates are however exempted from paying application fees for the exam.

Further, slight changes were also introduced in the size of uploaded photographs and signature for the application form to be submitted online. This included a minimum size of 20 KB instead of 10 KB, and maximum size of 80 KB instead of 200 KB, as per the previous requirement.

Exam Pattern

Earlier, JIPMER used to be conducted in two shifts; morning and afternoon shift. However, from this year, it is expected to be held only in the morning shift. This decision will be finally made based on the he number of total applicants and other logistics information and the final directions of Madras High Court too. However, if the the exam was to be conducted in morning and afternoon shifts, the time slot would be from 10 am to 12:30 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

With regard to the exam mode, it will be in the online computer based test mode, in the English language only. The total number of questions will be 200 in the MCQ format. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Logic and Quantitative Reasoning are the five sections for this exam.

Number of Test Cities Increased

The next change is in regard to the total number of exam centres. From 75 exam cities during last year, the number now stands at 120, an addition of 45 new exam centres. A choice of three exam centres can be made by all candidates at the time of application form submission. It has been advised to fill in this detail with utmost care as further change for exam centres are not permitted later on.

Negative Marking Introduced

An introduction of negative marking for JIPMER MBBS was another new and unexpected change this year. This includes a negative marking of one mark for every wrong answer. The marking pattern of four marks for every correct answer however remains unchanged.

Further, this has also led to small changes in deciding the tie-breaker criteria at the initial stage. Till last year, this was done on the basis of percentile earned in Biology subject but this year, the tie breaker would depend on those candidates with fewer negative marks.

Seats and Reservation

With regard to seats, following is the current seat availability for JIPMER MBBS 2018 exam.

The major change under this heading was only the horizontal reservation for Differently abled candidates, which increased from 3% to 5%. This was mainly done in line with the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016.