JEE‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌ Main 2026 Registration Gets Live Officially; NTA Changes Session 2 Dates and Provides Clarification on Calculator Policy

Session 2 exam schedule change along with the formal registration announcement by The National Testing Agency (NTA) for JEE Main 2026 first session has led to a lot of activities. According to the latest update, the first session of the test will be held from January 21 to 30, 2026, and the second session will be from April 2 to 9, 2026.

If a student satisfies all conditions, he may file a formal application for JEE Main 2026 through the official website — jeemain.nta.nic.in by 23:50 on November 27, 2025, with the last day being that for fee payment as ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌well.

In a clarification, NTA wrote that a virtual calculator cannot be used in the examination. NTA has indicated that the reference to a calculator in the previous version of the information bulletin was a "typographical error".

Eligibility & Exam Format

Students‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌ who have completed their Class 12 examination or an equivalent examination in the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 will be qualified to apply for the JEE Main examination. The agency has furthermore advised that there is no age restriction for appearing in the JEE ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌Main.

The entrance test carries two papers:

Paper 1: 2 hours 30 minutes, for admission to the BE/BTech programmes.

Paper 2: For BArch and BPlanning aspirants. 

Both papers contain objective questions and a numerical-based section, taking into account physics, chemistry, and mathematics for the students who want to go in for engineering.

Exam Pattern Snapshot

Exam Cities Expanded

This year, NTA increased the number of cities for JEE Main examination from 284 to 323; thus, more candidates will be able to take the test.

Meanwhile, CBSE has instructed its affiliated schools to share the registration data of Class 11 with NTA. This way, the possible clashes in schedule will be taken care of, as the timing of the board exams for Class 12 will be fixed after looking at the CBSE Class 11 data.

Session 1 results are scheduled to be declared by February 12, ‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‍‍‌2026.