How to calculate JEE Main 2020 rank from percentile? What does NTA score mean?

Ever since NTA published the result of JEE Main 2020 on January 17, 2020, students have been looking for answers to the following questions.

1. How to calculate rank from percentile?
2. How to calculate marks from percentile?
3. What does NTA score mean?

The reason these questions have arisen in the minds of 9 lakh+ engineering aspirants is the fact that National Testing Agency has displayed NTA score in the JEE Main 2020 result scorecard. This is not the marks obtained by candidate as per the answer key. It is also not percentage or rank.

So let us explain here, and give you the answers to all your three questions.  

1. How to calculate rank from percentile?

Well actually can we calculate rank from percentile? Not directly, but yes, there is a way to get an approximate idea.

You must have heard of rank predictors. Usually rank predictors make use of marks vs rank data of past few years to predict the rank of a candidate in the next exam. Just like rank predictors that use marks, there are rank predictors that use percentile vs rank date. 

Take a look at last year’s actual percentile vs rank data. This can be your rank predictor. 

JEE Main Percentile vs Rank – your JEE Main 2020 Rank Predictor!

After looking at this predictor, you may have a few more questions in mind.

How is this a rank predictor?

For a better direct version of rank predictor, you can use the Aglasem JEE Main Rank Predictor. However using this table is also easy. All you have to do is first check your NTA percentile from jeemain.nta.nic.in. Then see in which range, of the above table your percentile lies. Then check corresponding range of results and predict your rank. 

For example, if you have 92 percentile, then you can see that last time candidates got 98334 rank against 91.28 percentile, and 66675 rank against 93.5 percentile. So at 92 percentile, your rank is predicted to be between 66675 and 98334.

Is this accurate?

The above table has accurate data of percentile vs rank of last year. This year, the data may vary due to factors including but not limited to – number of test takers, difficulty of sessions, and so on.

What if I have less than 66 percentile?

Data predictions work best where data to compare is more. Unfortunately, percentile vs rank data for less than 66 percentile is not available at the moment. 

2. How to calculate marks from percentile?

Hey! Do not calculate marks from percentile. You can calculate marks directly using the answer keys. 

You can get all the answer keys here – JEE Main 2020 Official Answer Key. Hope you had saved your response sheets (the answers you wrote).

3. What does NTA Score Mean?

The scorecard says this about NTA score:

NTA Scores are normalized scores across multi session papers and are based on the relative performance of all those who appeared for the examination in one session. The marks obtained are converted into a scale ranging from 100 to 0 for each session.

Also, 

The NTA Score indicates the percentage of candidates who have scored EQUAL TO OR BELOW (same or lower raw scores) a particular candidate in that session.

And moreover, here is the formula that NTA used to calculate the percentile

(100 X Number of candidates appeared in the ‘Session’ with raw score EQUAL TO OR LESS than the candidate) / (Total number of candidates appeared in the ‘Session’).

How was your JEE Main 2020 result? Share your marks as per answer key, and NTA score in the comments below!