Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to re-introduce negative marking in evaluation of answer sheets of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) test from this year.
This was announced by the State Technical Education department in a release here on Saturday.
As per the decision, the students will be awarded minus one mark for each wrong answer.
While the system of negative marking was in vogue earlier, it was withdrawn in 2013.
Justifying the decision to re-introduce negative marking, OJEE chairperson Dr Tushar Kant Nath said if a student does not know the exact answer of a question but gets mark in wild guessing, then his ranking would not be knowledge-based.
“This negative marking is introduced in all-India entrance tests like the JEE and AIPMT in which four marks are awarded to each correct answer and 25 percent of marks (1 mark) is deducted for each wrong answer. There have been several discussions at the government and faulty levels. With the introduction of negative marking, the efficiency, knowledge and speed of the students would be tested. Hence it will be a justice to all the students who are appearing the entrance test,” he pointed out.
He said with the extension of application date for OJEE, more than 42,000 students have already applied for the test and it is expected that more students will apply by March 22, the last date of application.
Dr Nath also said the B.Tech first year and Architecture first year examinations will be held on the basis of the JEE Main rank while the admission to MBBS and BDS in the state would be held on the basis of AIPMT rank while JEE will conduct examinations for the remaining streams.