According to the recently published official report by the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC), the most challenging part of the JEE Advanced 2026 exam was not the questions students skipped, but those they answered incorrectly, leading to point deductions due to negative marking.
Analysis of statistics for individual questions showed that a significant number of applicants made serious errors in solving tasks in three subjects—Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics—reaching levels from 60 to 75 percent.
Specifically, Question number 14 from Physics, Part-2, caused the most difficulty among students, as 74.84% (approximately three quarters) of participants gave an incorrect answer. Only 10.59% of students demonstrated foresight and chose to skip this question.
Furthermore, in Physics, Part-1, Question number 9 was incorrectly solved by 69.01% of students, and in Physics, Part-2, Question number 13—by 67.79%.
The situation in Mathematics was also tense. In Mathematics, Part-2, Questions number 11 (67.24%), number 14 (66.49%), and number 18 (66.01%) had an incorrect answer percentage exceeding 66%. Nevertheless, some students exercised caution by not attempting to solve complex tasks, such as Questions number 5 and number 7 from Mathematics, Part-2, which were not attempted by 56.96% and 56.35%, respectively.
Significant errors were also noted in Chemistry: in Chemistry, Part-1, Question number 10 was answered incorrectly by 67.06% of students, and in Chemistry, Part-2, Question number 13—by 66.51%.
This data represents not just a statistical summary, but an important lesson for those preparing for JEE in subsequent years. The statistics demonstrate areas where knowledge weakened under exam pressure, as well as instances where negative marks were received due to excessive overconfidence or choosing false options. Therefore, future applicants are advised to conduct an in-depth analysis of such high-error-rate questions and learn to select appropriate tasks while focusing on time management.