NTA has explained the percentile system in JEE Main 2026, highlighting that marks for the 99th percentile ranged from 165 to 196 across shifts. The agency said normalisation ensures fairness despite varying paper difficulty.

NTA JEE Main 2026: In the middle of ongoing discussions around scores and rankings, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday posted a detailed note on X explaining how percentiles, raw marks and normalisation work in JEE Main 2026. The explaination, backed by data from the April session, attempts to address a question many students raise each year, why similar marks can lead to different percentiles.

Wide variation in marks across shifts

According to the data shared, the marks required to reach the 99th percentile varied significantly across the nine shifts conducted between April 2 and 8. In the toughest shift, students needed around 165 marks, while in the easiest, the cutoff rose to 196, a gap of 31 marks out of 300.

A similar trend was seen at other levels too. The difference stood at 27 marks for the 98th percentile and 26 marks for the 97th percentile. Interestingly, only two shifts saw a perfect score of 300. In another shift, the highest score recorded was 285, which still translated to a 100 percentile because no one scored higher in that paper.