Highlights of new iit entrance test

* There will be two exams, the joint entrance examination (JEE) "main" followed by the JEE "advanced".

* These combine the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and the IIT-JEE, with the "main" exam being equivalent to AIEEE, and "advanced" being equivalent to the IIT-JEE.

* There will be a "suitable" time gap between the two exams, though it was not clarified how much.

* Only top 150,000 candidates (including all categories) from the JEE "main" will be qualified to appear in the JEE "advanced" examination.

* Admission to IITs will be based on the rank in the "advanced" exam.

* However, only students who come in among the top 20 percent scorers in their respective board will be considered eligible for the IITs.

* The "advanced" exam will be held by the IITs, just like the IIT- JEE. It will be conducted by a Joint Admission Board (JAB) and Joint Implementation Committee of the IITs, the same which so far conducted the JEE.

* The JEE "main" will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and it will coordinate with the IITs. It will be implemented from 2013.

* Admission to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) will be based on the "main" exam score. A final decision on methodology of admission is pending. A meeting of representatives from the NITs is scheduled for July 4.

* Admission to several deemed universities will also be on the basis of scores in the "main" exam, which earlier took students on basis of AIEEE scores. A minimum percentage criteria will be fixed for these too.