The long wait is finally over for lakhs of engineering aspirants as the National Testing Agency (NTA) released the JEE Main 2026 Session 1 final answer key on February 16, 2026. But this time, there was an unexpected update: nine questions have been dropped from the exam.
Nine questions dropped after review
For students who have spent years preparing for JEE Main, this is not just a small correction. It can change how scores and ranks finally look. When a question is dropped, it means experts found an error in it, maybe it was unclear, had more than one correct answer, or had a technical mistake. Instead of letting students suffer because of that, NTA gives full marks for those questions to all candidates who appeared in the affected shifts.
Everyone gets bonus marks — But rank may not change
This means every student in those shifts will get +4 marks for each dropped question, even if they did not attempt it. On the surface, this feels like good news. But since everyone gets the same benefit, it does not automatically improve someone’s rank.
With bonus marks being added, raw scores will obviously go up. However, JEE Main results are not decided only by raw marks. They are calculated using percentile scores, which compare your performance with others in the same shift. So if everyone’s marks increase, the competition level also rises accordingly. In simple words, the cutoff for higher percentiles may also move up.
Physics and math most affected
Reports suggest that most of the dropped questions were from Physics and Mathematics, while Chemistry was mostly unaffected. This could slightly help students who struggled in tougher sections like Math.
Tie-breaking rules may come into play
Another possible effect is that many students may end up with the same total marks. When that happens, tie-breaking rules come into play, such as subject-wise scores or age criteria, to decide the final rank.
As results are expected soon on the official website, students should focus more on their percentile score rather than just raw marks, as that is what truly decides their standing in this competitive exam.