The National Testing Agency (NTA) will announce and inform students about the exact date and shift of their Joint Entrance Examination-Main (JEE-Main) by October 5.
The exact city and location of the entrance examination, however, will be announced by the testing agency by October 21.
The NTA will hold the nationwide test in multiple sittings from January 6, 2019 to January 20, 2019.
“The examinations will be organised on the weekends (Saturdays/ Sundays),” the testing agency has said in a latest notification.
The NTA had earlier said that it would inform the JEE-Main aspirants about the exact city, date and shift of the examinations for paper-1 and paper-2 by November 15.
“The exact date and shift allotted to candidates for JEE (Main)-January 2019 shall be displayed by October 5, 2018 on the NTA websites. The city allotted to the candidates of examination for Paper-1 and Paper-2 will also be available by October 21, 2018,” the testing agency said in its latest notification.
The NTA, an autonomous body under Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, is scheduled to hold the JEE-Main in multiple sittings twice a year from next year. The test will be entirely computer-based from this year.
The system of holding the test in pen and paper mode has been phased out by the testing agency with approval of the Central government on the ground that it would not only help check any possibility of paper leak but also facilitate an error-free evaluation of the performance of the candidates in the nation-wide entrance test for engineering colleges.
While the first test will be held from January 6, 2019 to January 20, 2019, the second test will be conducted conduct by the NTA from April 7 to April 21 in 2019.
The results of the first JEE-Main will be declared in the first week of February 2019 while the results of the second JEE-Main will be announced in the first week of May, 2019.
“Candidates can appear for the JEE Main as per their convenience, either in the month of January or April 2019 or in both of these months. The best of the candidates' scores in the two tests will be considered by the institutions for admission,” an official said.
Last date for registration of candidates for the JEE-Main, to be held in January, is September 30, 2018.