JEE Main, NEET 2021: In a major change to the national-level Medical and Engineering entrance exams this year, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has removed the provision of giving priority to a candidate older in age in the rank lists of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021 for Engineering and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2021 for Medical. Information brochures of the two exams do not mention candidates' age as a criterion for breaking ties. In NEET 2020, the age criteria was used to determine the all-India topper as two students had scored perfect 720 out of 720 marks.
To prepare rank lists of JEE Main and NEET, the NTA uses a tie-breaking policy so that two candidates are not assigned the same rank.
In 2020, the tie-breaking method for JEE Main Engineering paper was: candidates with higher NTA scores in Mathematics will be given preference, followed by NTA scores in Physics, and Chemistry. If the tie remains, candidates with less proportion of negative responses will be preferred, followed by candidates older in Age. Similar methods were used for BArch and BPlanning papers as well.
However, in 2021, higher age as a criterion for tie-breaking has been removed.
Similarly, in NEET 2021, ties between two students will be resolved in this order:
This does not mention the candidate's age like last year.
NEET: How Last Year's All India Topper Was Selected
In NEET 2020, Odisha's Soyeb Aftab and Uttar Pradesh's Akanksha Singh had scored 720 out of 720, but the former was given the all India rank 1 due to his older age.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had reportedly said he would write to the National Testing Agency to declare Akanksha Singh the joint topper.
Tummala Snikitha, Vineet Sharma, and Amrisha Khaitan had scored 715 marks in NEET 2020 but for the same reason, the candidates were assigned different ranks despite scoring the same marks.
With this change, it is likely that the NEET 2021 and JEE Main 2021 rank lists will have multiple toppers on the same rank.