Normalization in JEE Main 2025: Know How your Scores are Calculated

JEE Main 2025 session 1 of the exam is scheduled from January 22nd to 31st and session 2 from April 1st to 8th. The probability of shifts and papers being tough and easy has been a common phenomenon for many years. While there might be a greater advantage for candidates who got comparatively easier papers than others, some might receive tougher question papers and might lose marks. 

Normalization is a process to equalize marks obtained by candidates based on their exam paper toughness. Normalization ensures the fairness of the exam and ensures that everyone has the same advantage to clear the exam and secure admission to their dream university. This article will act as a guide to know everything about the normalization process and how marks are calculated.

Why Normalization is Employed in JEE Main?

Normalization involves statistical techniques to adjust the marks of candidates based on the toughness of the paper. Candidates often Prepare for JEE Main for years with a lot of effort, and the normalization process is employed to eliminate the probability of some benefiting over others with the difficulty level of the exam. This normalization process ensures fairness and consistency in the marking scheme.

Below are some reasons why Normalization is important in this competitive exam:

• Adjusting for Difficulty Level: Different shifts may have slightly different difficulty levels. Normalization adjusts scores to balance these discrepancies.

• Ensuring Equal Opportunity: Normalization helps level the playing field for students appearing in different exam sessions, ensuring fairness for all.

• Compensating for Answer Key Errors: It accounts for any possible discrepancies in the answer key, ensuring that students’ scores reflect true performance.

• Promoting Accurate Rank Calculation: Normalizing scores ensures that students across different shifts can be compared accurately based on consistent criteria.

• Handling Multi-Session Examinations: JEE Mains is held in multiple sessions, and normalization ensures scores across these sessions for valid comparison and ranking.

How Normalized Scores are Calculated?

Normalized scores are calculated based on the statistical approach and involves data such as scores obtained by the individual candidate. The raw scores are considered and the mean deviation, standard deviation are accounted for them. Percentile scores (relative measure of candidates who scored equal or less than them) of candidates are also considered for the calculation of normalized scores. 

The Percentile Score, rather than the candidate’s raw marks, will serve as the Normalized Score for the examination. It will be used to prepare the merit lists. Percentile Scores will be calculated to seven decimal places to minimize the bunching effect and reduce the occurrence of ties.

The simplified version of the formula to calculate scores for normailzation is given below.

The formula for calculating the Percentile Score of a candidate is:

Criticism of the Normalization Process

While the normalization process of the JEE Main is introduced for the fairness and transparency of the exam. It is still critisized by experts because of the following parameters:

• Subjectivity: The measure of toughness of the exam is subjective and the variations of perspectives effect the normalization process.

• Limited Data: There might be a situation where the accuracy of the process will be compromised due to the limited data availability.
• Public Perception: Certain candidates and stakeholders may raise concerns about the transparency of the normalization process, which could lead to doubts regarding the fairness of the results.

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