JEE Main vs JEE Advanced: what's the difference?

They're two stages of the same journey, run by different bodies, with different purposes. JEE Main - Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), usually in two sessions (January and April). Your best score counts. - Used for admission to NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded technical institutes (GFTIs) through JoSAA, and by many state and private colleges. - Paper 1 is for B.E./B.Tech; Paper 2 is for B.Arch and B.Planning. - It's also the qualifying exam for JEE Advanced. JEE Advanced - Conducted by one of the IITs each year on a rotation. - Only the top roughly 2.5 lakh JEE Main candidates (across categories) can appear. Check the current year's number. - Used for admission to the IITs (and a few other institutes like IISc's BS programme and IISERs, which also accept it). - Harder, more concept-heavy, and the pattern can change year to year. - You can attempt it at most twice, in two consecutive years. Board marks rule: for IIT/NIT/IIIT admission, you generally need 75% in Class 12 (65% for SC/ST) or to be in the top 20 percentile of your board. How to prepare for both: they share a syllabus base (Class 11–12 PCM). Prepare concepts deeply for Advanced, and practise speed and accuracy for Main. Most students prepare together and add Advanced-level problem sets in the final months. Counselling: JoSAA handles seats for both IITs (Advanced rank) and NITs/IIITs (Main rank) together. Guidopia's Career DNA can check whether engineering is a strong fit for you before you commit two years to it.