Students who wish to study engineering in India aim for good scores in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main . This national exam is a path to top engineering colleges like the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other centrally funded technical institutions. Many students target a 90 percentile score to get into these good colleges.
For the upcoming JEE Main 2026 Session 1 exam , students looking to achieve a 90 percentile should aim to answer around 24 to 26 questions correctly . This would mean securing about 96 to 100 marks out of the total 300 marks . The first session of JEE Main 2026 is generally expected to take place in January 2026 . The exact dates will be announced later by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The JEE Main exam is challenging, and understanding how scores are converted to percentiles is important for planning your preparation. The NTA releases the exam results in the form of a percentile score. This is done using a special method called 'normalisation'.
What is a Percentile Score?
A percentile score is different from a percentage. A percentage shows how many marks you got out of the total. A percentile, however, shows your rank compared to other students. For example, if you score in the 90th percentile , it means you have performed better than 90% of all students who took the exam in your particular session. This method ensures fairness, as the exam is held in different shifts with varying difficulty levels.
The normalisation process is important because it adjusts scores across all shifts. This makes sure that no student has an unfair advantage or disadvantage due to the difficulty of their exam paper. The final result always comes as a percentile, not as raw marks, after this process.
Expected Scores for 90 Percentile in JEE Main 2026
To help students understand what to aim for, here are the expected raw marks and correct attempts needed to reach different percentiles around 90 in JEE Main Session 1 2026. These numbers are based on trends from previous years' exams. They are estimates and can vary.
| JEE Main Percentile | Expected Raw Marks | Expected Correct Attempts |
| 90.9 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.8 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.7 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.6 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.5 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.4 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.3 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.2 | 100 | 25 |
| 90.1 | 96 | 24 |
| 90 | 96 | 24 |
Factors that Influence JEE Main Percentiles
The number of correct attempts and marks required to achieve a certain percentile, like 90, is not fixed. Several key factors can change these estimates each year:
- Difficulty Level of the Exam: If the questions in a particular exam shift are tougher, students might need fewer correct answers to reach a high percentile. If the questions are easier, more correct answers will be needed.
- Performance of Other Students: Your percentile rank depends on how all other students perform. If many students score very high, it becomes harder to achieve a top percentile even with a good score.
- Exam Cutoff Trends: The cutoffs for admission to various engineering colleges change every year. These trends give an idea but are not exact for future exams.
Students preparing for JEE Main 2026 Session 1 should focus on strong preparation. Understanding the exam pattern, practicing questions, and managing time well during the exam are important. Aiming for around 96 to 100 marks by getting about 24 to 26 questions correct is a good target for students targeting a 90 percentile score .
