West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination

Acronym	WBJEE
Type	OMR sheet based (Pen & Paper)
Developer / administrator	West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board
Knowledge / skills tested	Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics
Purpose	Admission into UG Courses in Engineering/Technology, Pharmacy and Architecture of different Universities, Government Colleges as well as Self Financing , Private Engineering & Technological Institutes in the State of West Bengal
Year started	1962 (62 years ago) (1962)
Duration	Total 4 hour including 2 papers. 2 hours for each paper.
Offered	Conducted once per year
Restrictions on attempts	No attempt limits
Countries / regions	West Bengal
Languages	English language , Bengali language
Annual number of test takers	1,24,919 (2023)
Qualification rate	99.4% (2023)
Website	wbjeeb.nic.in/wbjee/

West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) is a state-government (West Bengal) controlled centralized test, conducted by the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board for admission into Undergraduate Courses (like B.E / B.Tech. / B.Pharm. etc.) in Engineering/Technology, Pharmacy and Architecture of different Universities, Government Colleges as well as Self Financing, Private Institutes in the State of West Bengal.^[1]

The test is taken after the 12th grade for admission to Undergraduate Courses which is called as Bachelor's degree. The exam can be taken by those who studied physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and English in the 10+2 level as these subjects are tested in the examination.

In 2023, a total of 1,24,919 candidates appeared for the WBJEE 2023 exam and 96,913 passed the exam.^[2] Students of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations board take the test, though it is dominated by the former.

Till the year 2016, the exam was also used as an entrance exam for the state medical colleges. Till then, it was also knows as the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Joint Entrance for Medical (WBJEE JEM).

History

From 2012, the old pattern was Phased out and the WBJEE would consist of only MCQ questions which differs from the previous years by the fact that 2 Marks Short answers type questions are replaced by MCQ with the same weightage of marks. In 2016 there will be a different type of pattern in Biology question paper. Category-I consists of (Q.1 to Q.90) carrying one mark each, for which only one option is correct. Category-II consists of (Q.91 to Q.105) carrying two marks each, for which only one option is correct. Category-III consists of (Q.106 to Q.120) carrying two marks each, for which one or more than one option may be correct. Starting from 2012, all papers consist of 80 MCQ type question divided in two section. Section one consists of 60 MCQs of 1 marks each and Section two consists of the remaining 20 MCQs of 2 marks each. Negative marking is applicable. 30% of the total marks of a question will be deducted for every incorrect answer.^[3]

In 2006, the WBJEE contained only objective-type MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) type questions. This announcement attracted mixed reactions with some applauding it as a step towards the future while others have said that opting for MCQ when other tests were slowly phasing out MCQ because of studies showing MCQ failed to properly judge aptitude is a folly.

The WBJEE 2008 was Postponed Due To Paper Leak, after the Physics, Chemistry and Biology papers were leaked.^[4] Two persons, Arun Chowdhury and Mihir Dandapatt, were arrested on Saturday in West Midnapore's Ghatal, where the three papers were being sold for Rs 2.5 lacs.^[5]

WBJEE 2011 exam was postponed from 17 April 2011 to 22 May due to election date issues in West Bengal.^[6]

For 2020–2021 academic session, the Board will conduct the Common Entrance Examination for admission to Undergraduate Courses in Engineering & Technology, Pharmacy and Architecture in Universities, Govt. Colleges and Self-Financed Institutes in the State.

Participating Institutes

Various colleges intake students based on WBJEE Ranks. Total 119 Institutes are taking admission through this Entrance Exam.^[7] The WBJEEB board itself conducts a centralized counselling session for students with valid WBJEE GMR or PMR where colleges are allotted to them.^[8] The institutions that take part in this session are:^[9]-

Pattern of Exam

WBJEE exam conducted thorough two papers which are Paper-I and Paper-II. Paper-I consists upon Mathematics paper and Paper-II consists upon Physic and Chemistry paper. All questions will be Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), with four options against each question. There will be three categories of questions in each subject. The number of questions, as well as the maximum marks for each, are given in the following table:

• Questions are to be answered on a specially designed optical machine-readable response (OMR) sheet, which will be evaluated by the Optical Mark Recognition method. Thus, it is very important to follow the correct way of marking.

• Candidates will indicate their response to the questions by darkening the appropriate circle/bubble entirely with a blue/black ink ball point pen. Pen will be provided by the WBJEEB.

• Any other kind of marking, e.g., filling the circle/bubble incompletely, filling with pencil, cross mark, tick mark, dot mark, circular mark, over writing, scratching, erasing, white ink(prohibited), marking outside the circle/bubble etc. may lead to wrong/partial/ambiguous reading of the response. WBJEEB will be, in no way, responsible for such an eventuality, and this may lead to the cancellation of the OMR sheet.

• Response marking cannot be edited/changed/erased/modified.

Category-1

a) Only one option is correct.

b) The correct response will yield 1 (one) mark for each question.

c) The incorrect response will yield -¼ (25% negative) marks for each question.

d) For any combination of more than one option, even if it contains the correct option, the said answer will be treated as incorrect and will yield -¼ (25% negative) marks.

e) Not attempting the question will fetch zero mark.

Category-2

a) Only one option is correct.

b) The correct response will yield 2(two) marks for each question.

c) The incorrect response will yield -1/2 (25% negative) marks for each question.

d) For any combination of more than one option, even if it contains the correct option, the said answer will be treated as incorrect and will yield -1/2 (25% negative) marks.

e) Not attempting the question will fetch zero mark.

Category-3

a) One or more option(s) is/are correct.

b) Marking all correct option(s) only will yield 2 (two) marks.

c) For any combination of answers containing one or more incorrect options, the said answer will be treated as wrong, yielding a zero mark even if one or more of the chosen option(s) is/are correct.

d) For partially correct answers, i.e., when all right options are not marked and also no incorrect options are marked, marks awarded =2 × (no of correct options marked) / total no of actually correct option(s).

e) Not attempting the question will fetch zero mark.

WBJEE Papers and ranking procedure

• Candidates appearing in both paper-I and paper-II are eligible for a General Merit Rank (GMR) and a Pharmacy Merit Rank (PMR). Such candidates may be considered for admission in all courses of Engineering and Pharmacy.

• Candidates appearing only in paper-II are eligible for PMR only. Such candidates may be considered for admission into Pharmacy courses only (except in Jadavpur University).

• Candidates appearing only in paper-I are not eligible for any rank.

Ranking Methodology and Merit Lists

WBJEEB will prepare merit ranks based on the candidates’ scores in the Common Entrance Test. Individual candidates will be able to view and download their rank cards, which will contain their score and rank. WBJEEB does not publish any rank/score list for the public to ensure confidentiality for individual candidate.

Based on the papers (subjects) that appeared for and the corresponding marks scored, two separate Merit Ranks shall be generated in the following method:

A. General Merit Rank (GMR):

a) A sequence of General Merit Rank (GMR) will be prepared based on the total scores obtained in Paper-I and Paper-II, taken together.

b) Ranking shall be done in descending order of total marks scored in all the subjects.

c) Separate reserved category merit positions will also be indicated for the respective category of students, e.g., SC Rank, ST Rank, OBC-A Rank, OBC-B Rank, EWS Rank, PWD Rank, TFW Rank, etc., as applicable.

d) Admission to all Engineering / Technology / Architecture Courses and the Pharmacy Course in Jadavpur University will be based only on GMR.

e) Sequencing orders for counselling/allotment of seats/admission will be based only on GMR (not category ranks). Category ranks will only be reflected in the rank card to provide an information regarding category wise position of the respective candidate.

B. Pharmacy Merit Rank (PMR):

a) A sequence of Pharmacy Merit Rank (PMR) will be prepared based on the score in paper II only, i.e., Physics and Chemistry.

b) Ranking shall be done in the descending order of marks scored in paper-II.

c) Separate reserved category merit positions will also be indicated for respective categories of students, e.g., SC Rank, ST Rank, OBC-A Rank, OBC-B Rank, EWS Rank, PWD Rank, TFW Rank, etc., as applicable.

d) Admission to all Pharmacy Courses except in Jadavpur University shall be made based on PMR.

e) Sequencing orders for counselling/allotment of seats/admission will be based only on PMR (not on category ranks). Category ranks will only be reflected in the rank card to provide an information regarding category wise position of the respective candidate

C. Category ranks:

These are generated based on the category information given by the candidates during the online application, but documents are verified by the allotted institute during counselling. Hence, the candidate's certificates/ documents/ proofs must be valid as of the verification date. If any candidate's claim is found invalid during verification, his/her category rank will be cancelled, and the candidate will be considered in the general category. The category ranks of other candidates will not be revised.