JEE Main 2026 Session 2 Marks vs Percentile: Know Your Percentile Marks, Category Wise Cutoffs, and Previous Trends

Knowing the relationship between marks and percentile is essential for every candidate because scoring high marks does not guarantee a high percentile. Since the exam is conducted in different shifts, NTA uses a percentile-based normalisation to ensure fairness across varying difficulty levels. For students aiming at top institutes like NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs, this JEE Main 2026 marks vs percentile predictor provides you with early insights into your admission chances. This guide helps you translate your raw score into a meaningful performance indicator in a highly competitive exam.

JEE Main 2026 Session 2 Marks vs Percentile

The JEE Main 2026 Session 2 exam was conducted between April 2 and 8, 2026. As of now, if you score around 190-200+ in session 2, it can be similar to the 99+ percentile, while an expected score between 150-160 will be treated as 97+ percentile. However, the determination of percentiles vs scores will depend on the total number of candidates appearing and the overall difficulty level of the session exam (including all shifts). 

Your percentile is your real score in JEE Main, and your rank is simply your position among all percentiles. Raw marks matter only indirectly, they first get converted into a percentile, and that decides everything. The marks vs percentile predictor for JEE Main 2026 session 2 is an essential tool for candidates who want to estimate their performance even before the official JEE Main 2026 Results are declared.

What Is a Percentile Score in JEE Main?

In the JEE Main 2026 session 2, the percentile score is a normalised score indicating the percentage of candidates who scored equal to or lower than you in a specific session, ranging from 100 to 0. For example, if you got 95 percentile means you performed better than 95% of the test takers.

NTA also uses the percentile marks to normalise scores across multiple exam sessions with varying difficulty levels. Instantly, you can use our JEE Main 2026 Session 2 marks vs percentile predictor to estimate your percentile score, which ensures your eligibility for further admission processes.

Factors Affecting JEE Main Session 2 Marks vs Percentile

The exam is conducted in two shifts a day for multiple days, and multiple candidates appear in each shift, having different papers with different difficulty levels. Here are the most important factors that will affect your marks and percentile:

• Total number of candidates who appeared in your shift.
• Overall difficulty level of your shift exam paper.
• Subject-wise difficulty level of your shift.
• Negative marking impact.

These are common factors generally used to calculate your marks vs percentile score in the session you took the exam.

JEE Main Session 2 Percentile Calculation Formula

You can calculate your overall performance with the JEE Main 2026 Session 2 marks vs percentile predictor using your raw score with the following formula.

JEE Main Percentile Score Formula

Percentile Score = 100 × (Number of candidates in the session with raw score ≤ your raw score)/ Total Number of candidates in your session

Calculation Process

Let us understand this with an example;

If the total number of candidates who appeared in the session = 100,000.
Among all, the total number of candidates who scored less than or equal to your score = 95,000
Then, your Percentile Score will be: (95,000/ 100,000) × 100 = 95th percentile.

Related Read: Check out How Many Students Registered for JEE Mains 2026 Session 2?

NTA Normalization Process for JEE Main Session 2

NTA uses the “Normalization Process” to ensure fairness when the examination is conducted in multiple sessions or shifts. Each session/ shift has a different set of question papers with an identically different difficulty level. To evaluate the overall performance in the session, the normalisation process by NTA to ensure that candidates are neither benefited nor disadvantaged due to the difficulty level of the exam.

In simple words, the difficulty level of the question paper in different shifts may not be the same. Candidates who attempt a comparatively tougher exam are likely to get lower marks than those who attempt the easier one. To overcome such a situation, the normalisation process is used, based on the percentile score, not on the raw score.

Step-by-Step NTA Normalization Process

The NTA employs percentile-based normalization to ensure fairness. In this process, session-wise percentiles are calculated up to 7 decimal places; subsequently, the higher of the percentiles obtained in Session 1 and Session 2 is utilized to determine the final rank. The complete process is as follows:

Calculation of Raw Scores: Raw scores are calculated based on the official JEE Main 2026 marking scheme.

Determination of Session-wise Percentiles: In JEE Main, the determination of session-wise percentiles is done as follows:

• Percentile is calculated separately for each exam session/shift to ensure fairness across different question paper difficulties.
• Candidates in each session are ranked based on their raw marks.
• For every candidate, percentile is calculated using the number of students who scored less than or equal to their marks in that same session.
• The formula used is: Percentile Score = 100 × (Number of candidates in the session with raw score ≤ your raw score)/ Total Number of candidates in your session
• The highest scorer in each session receives a 100 percentile.
• Percentile values are calculated up to multiple decimal places (often up to 7) to avoid ties.
• Separate percentiles are also computed for Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and overall score.
• These session-wise percentiles are later combined across all shifts to prepare the final merit list and All India Rank.
• This method ensures that students are evaluated on relative performance within their own session, not absolute marks.

Shift Merging (Normalization): A consolidated merit list is prepared by combining the percentile scores from all shifts, thereby equalizing the difficulty levels across all shifts.

‘Best of Session’ Policy: If you have appeared for both Session 1 and Session 2, the higher of the two overall percentiles obtained will be used for determining your final ranking.

Tie-Breaking Policy: In the event of a tie in percentiles, the following criteria are applied in this specific order:

• Higher percentile in Mathematics
• Higher percentile in Physics
• Higher percentile in Chemistry
• Candidates of higher age.

Note: When preparing the final results and the All-India Rank (AIR), only the percentile scores rather than the raw scores will be taken as the basis.

For detailed and official information, check out Official PDF Document on Normalization Process based on Percentile Score for JEE Main.

JEE Main 2026 Session 2 Subject-wise Marks vs Percentile

You can understand your performance in the JEE Main Session 2 exam by calculating the subject-wise percentile score with the JEE Main 2026 session 2 marks vs percentile predictor. The percentile score usually provides insight into your strength, and doesn’t directly impact your rank. The following tables are based on 2025 data, and the marks may slightly increase for 2026.

JEE Main Session 2 Physics Marks vs Percentile

Here are the expected marks vs percentile for the JEE Main Session Physics section. The exam is being conducted in different shifts, so the paper difficulty level also varies.

Physics Percentile	Expected Marks
99.5+	87+
99+	82–87
98+	76–82
97+	71–76
96+	67–71
95+	64–67
94+	60–64
93+	57–60
92+	55–57
91+	52–55
90+	49–52
80+	42–49
70+	35–42
60+	30–35

JEE Main Session 2 Chemistry Marks vs Percentile (2026)

Here you can check the expected marks vs percentile for the chemistry subject.

Chemistry Percentile	Expected Marks
99.5+	71+
99+	65–71
98+	58–65
97+	54–58
96+	50–54
95+	47–50
94+	44–47
93+	42–44
92+	40–42
91+	38–40
90+	36–38
80+	30–36
70+	25–30
60+	17–25

JEE Main Session 2 Mathematics Marks vs Percentile (2026)

The mathematics marks vs percentile may vary across shifts, as the JEE Main Session 2 exam is being concluded in different shifts. The expected data can be collected from the table below.

Mathematics Percentile	Expected Marks
99.5+	60+
99+	50–60
98+	41–50
97+	35–41
96+	32–35
95+	28–32
94+	26–28
93+	25–26
92+	23–25
91+	21–23
90+	20–21
80+	16–20
70+	11–16
60+	8–11

JEE Main 2026 Session 2 Marks vs Percentile vs Colleges

JEE Main percentile determines the prospects for admission to the top engineering institutes across India. It is noteworthy that different ranks may be assigned even with identical scores, making this a crucial factor for college selection and counselling.

Let us see the range of marks and percentile you might need to get admission in various top NITs colleges and top IIIT Colleges in India via JEE Main. The following table shows the expected data only for reference purposes, not to indicate the exact number.

Percentile	Marks (Session 2)	Rank (Approx)	College Opportunities
99.5+	220 – 245	< 7,000	Top NITs (CSE), IIIT Hyderabad
99.0+	185 – 215	< 15,000	Top NITs (Core), Good IIITs
98.0+	160 – 185	< 25,000	Mid NITs, IIITs (CSE/ECE)
95.0+	135 – 160	< 60,000	Lower NITs, IIITs, GFTIs
90.0+	115 – 135	< 1,00,000	GFTIs, State Govt Colleges
85.0+	95 – 115	< 1.5 lakh	State colleges, Private colleges
80.0+	80 – 95	< 2 lakh	Private colleges (decent tier)

Related Read: What Score in JEE Advanced Do You Need for IIT

Analysis JEE Main April 2026 Shift-Wise Marks vs Percentile

The data provided in the table below are expected for the 99th percentile and may vary by shifts. According to previous trends, you can get an expected idea of your percentile score for each shift.

JEE Main Session 2 Dates	Shift 1 Marks	Shift 2 Marks
April 2, 2026	188 – 193	184 – 189
April 4, 2026	185 – 190	181 – 186
April 5, 2026	194 – 199	190 – 195
April 6, 2026	190 – 195	186 – 191
April 7, 2026	187 – 192	183 – 188
April 8, 2026	192 – 197	188 – 193

Year-wise JEE Main Session 2 Marks vs Percentile Comparison (2022-2026)

By the year, JEE Main marks vs percentile required more effort to touch the 99^th percentile. Based on the trend, increased competition in the JEE Main Exam has raised the marks, which were 160-180+ marks in 2022-23 and required 190-200+ in 2025-26. The following shows you the JEE Main marks vs percentile trends from 2022-2026.

Key highlights of the trend:

• For the year 2022-23: That time, the competition was lower, and to secure the 99^th percentile, a score of 150-160 was sufficient.
• For the year 2024-25: Timely, the competition has risen due to an increase in participants. Means a score of 180+ was required to touch the 99^th percentile.
• For the year 2026, it is expected that the competition will be higher than in 2025. Participants have risen this year, so the high score to reach at the 99^th percentile is expected to be 190-200+ marks.

Category-Wise JEE Main Session 2 Cutoff Percentile 2026

Please note that every year, the JEE Main Session 2 cutoff percentile varies for each category. This year, for session 2, candidates required a higher cutoff percentile due to increased participants compared to the previous year. The table below shows you the cutoff percentile for JEE Main Session 2 to qualify for the JEE Advanced.

Category	Expected Session 2 Cutoff Percentile
General (UR)	93 – 95
General – EWS	80 – 83
OBC – NCL	74 – 82
SC	54 – 65
ST	44 – 46
PwD	44 – 46

Conclusion

The JEE Main Session 2 exam is being conducted from April 2 to 8, 2026, across multiple shifts. Here, I have provided you with the expected JEE Main Session 2 marks vs percentile for 2026. You can check your percentile score with JEE Main Session 2 raw marks to be eligible for further selection or to appear in the JEE Advanced 2026. It is expected that an average of 180+ marks is required to touch the 99^th percentile this year, which can vary by shifts. The official marks vs percentile data for JEE Main session 2 are not yet released by NTA.

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