JEE Main 2014 Rank Predictor: Understanding Percentile and Normalization of Class 12th Board Marks

Creating buzz amongst engineering aspirants, the percentile and normalization process of Class 12thBoard marks and JEE(Joint Entrance Examination) Mains scores has been a topic of much concern for the students. 
One of the most common questions asked by aspirants is the difference between percentage and percentile. Factually, the percentage of marks and percentile are two totally different entities.
Percentage, is a number out of 100, while percentile or a percentile score of an aspirant in JEE Main or Board basically reflects the number of candidates who have scored below that candidate in their Board exams or JEE(Main) Examination.

 What is Normalization? Normalisation is the process of ensuring that students neither are benefitted nor receive any disadvantage by the difficulty of their Boards. The very process is used in other countries with similar issues as in India. 

Understanding the Percentile score/system:
As the JEE Mains official website states, “ A Percentile score is the value below which a certain percent of observations fall.”
Explaining the system further, the site quotes an example mentioned below:
40th Percentile is the value or score below which 40 Percent of the observations may be found. The percentile of a candidate will be calculated as:
100 X Number of candidates in the ‘group’ with aggregate marks less than the candidate / Total number of the candidates in the ’group’ 
Here is an example to make the concept clearer to students:
Suppose in a particular Board, the number of candidates registered are 13918 and  the number of candidates who have actually appeared for the exam is 13711.
Example 1: An aspirant has scored 50% marks in his/her Board and 2218 aspirants have scored below him. In this case, the percentile will for this candidate will be calculated as follows:
Percentile score for 50% marks in the Board =(2218 x 100)13711 = 16.18
Example 2: An aspirant scores 60% marks in his/her Board and 6865 students have scored below:
Him in the exam. In this case, the percentile score will be calculated in the below manner:
Percentile score for 60% marks in the Board = (6865 x 100)/13711 = 50.07
Example 3: An aspirant acquires 90% marks in his/her Board and 13615 students score below him. The percentile score will be calculated in the following way:
Percentile score for 90% marks in the Board =  (13615 x 100)/13711 = 99.30
Thus, the above mentioned examples indicate that the percentage of marks acquired by an aspirant(50%, 60% or 90%) varies from the percentile score (16.18, 50.07 or 99.30).
Subjects considered for the Percentile score:

  • Language
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Any one of (Chemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Technical Vocational Subject)
  • Any other subject
Please note that if a candidate has appeared in six subjects in the qualifying examination, the subject (fifth or sixth) with better marks will be considered.
Data considered to calculate normalized score for qualifying examination marks:
To calculate the normalized qualifying examination marks, given below is the data required:

  • Marks of all the students in that Board whose subject combinations meet the eligibility criteria of JEE-Main.
  • Marks of all the students in JEE (Main) – 2014
Normalized Qualifying Examinations Marks:
Students should note that the normalized qualifying exam marks will be calculated on the basis of the candidate’s position in the Board exam(percentile score). The percentile that an aspirant scores will mainly contribute to his/her normalized marks.  
Points to note:

  • Aspirants willing to appear in the improvement examination to improve the qualifying examination marks, will have to appear in all the five subjects mentioned above for improvement.
  • In the percentile system, the total marks (of all five subjects) obtained/shown on the mark-sheet of a particular year are required in JEE (Main) and also in JEE (Advanced). The marks from two different years (i.e. marks for 3 subjects from year 2012 and marks for other 2 subjects from 2013) mark-sheets cannot be considered for percentile calculation.
  • Candidates who are appearing in the improvement examination to improve their qualifying  examination marks will get only one chance to inform JEE (Main) Unit as to which year qualifying  examination marks to be considered for the purpose of declaration of final merit.
JEE Advanced 2014:
1. For JEE Advanced, if an aspirant submits the particulars of his/her qualifying examination for  2013, the top 20 percentile criteria of 2013 will be applicable which was declared by IITs after the declaration of the boards’ results of 2013. Similarly, the candidates who are providing their qualifying  examination particulars of 2014, the criteria of 20 percentile will be applicable which will be declared after the declaration of the boards’ results of 2014.
2. The weightage of normalized qualifying examination marks is only for deciding ranking of JEE (Main)  which will be used for admission to all Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs)/ NITs/IIITs but  excluding IITs.
Detailed Normalization Process adopted for admission to NITs/IIITs/CFTIs on the Basis of Class 12th Qualifying examination marks:



  • Ao = Aggregate marks obtained by each student in JEE Main 2014.
  • Bo = Aggregate marks in a particular board computed from a list of five subjects meeting the JEE Main 2014 Eligibility Criteria. This is used to compile the percentile (P) of each student to get the corresponding JEE Main 2014 marks
  • B1 = JEE Main 2014 aggregate marks corresponding to percentile (P) at the All- India level.
  • B2 = JEE Main 2014 aggregate marks corresponding to percentile (P) among the set of aggregate scores obtained in the JEE Main 2014 by the students of that board.
Calculation of normalized board score of the candidate:
Bfinal = 0.5 * (B1 + B2)
Note: The JEE Main marks and the Normalized board marks will be used in the ratio of 60: 40 for  admission to the CFTIs(Centrally Funded Technical Institutes).
To derive the JEE Main 2014 merit list, the composite score is calculated in the following way:
C = 0.6 * AO + 0.4 * Bfinal
The composite score, thus, calculated will be the basis to calculate the JEE Main 2014 Merit Ranks.