JEE Main - Comparison between online vs offline

Author: Shreyansh Shrivastava

The JEE Main exam Paper 1 for B.tech would be held in both online and offline modes. The online mode would wherein question would appear on the screen and the candidate would mark answers. A lot of students are in a state of confusion to choose either the online or offline mode.

Here is a comparison of the advantages of JEE Main online vs offline modes for a student to gain clarity.

In JEE Main Offline mode, An OMR sheet would be provided to the candidate to mark the correct answer by highlighting the bubble. Following are the advantages of JEE Main Offline mode:

  1. Comfort level: Indian students on a usual basis are comfortable with the offline mode right from the school level, only lately online mock tools have been provided are promoted by schools. A student also has practiced for JEE Main only by highlighting options on a paper.
  2. Technical problems: An offline based mode guarantees a little peace in terms of having technical glitches to deal with in a typical examination environment existing in addition to the panic that he already is in.

Present below are the disadvantages of JEE Main Offline mode:

  1. Time-consuming: Anything worse than leaving a question and not getting marks is selecting a right question, answering it and not getting marks for it. An OMR sheet would require accurate and precise marking which the candidate has to be extra cautious of.
  2. An answer cannot be changed: As indicated in the previous point, once a candidate marks an answer in haste, the action cannot be reversed and the candidate can be at a major loss.

In an online examination of JEE Main, a candidate would be assigned a Computer Center and the test would begin at the time mentioned on the admit card. The advantages of JEE Main Online mode are mentioned as follows:

  1. Questions can be reviewed later: This is one major advantage in the JEE Main online mode wherein a candidate can leave a question temporarily and then come back to answer it.
  2. Less wastage of time: In the offline mode, there is a necessity to check once or twice as to the answer that has been marked, the time to that extent is saved in the offline mode.
  3. JEE Mock test: The JEE Mock test launched before the exam would give the candidate enough scope to familiarize himself with online exam simulation to do well.

The disadvantages of the JEE Main online mode are as follows:

  1. Confidence issues: A lot of candidates coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds would not be confident of attempting the exam in an online mode owing to low computer awareness.
  2. Calculation issues: A lot of candidates find it tough to note values down from the screen and compute the requisite values. Rough sheets would be provided to candidates in the course of the exam and the candidate should make accurate calculations.