The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main will be held in 13 languages, including English, Hindi and Bengali, in 2021 and students will get four chances to take the test.

The scores will be used to decide admission to BTech courses in most national-level institutions.

According to an information bulletin issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday, the question papers will be available in English, Hindi, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu. In 2020, the test was conducted in English, Hindi and Gujarati.

The language options have been added in sync with the government’s proposed policy to start BTech courses in local languages at IITs and NITs. The government has proposed to create similar language options for JEE Advanced, the test conducted by IITs for selecting students for their BTech courses. The top 2.5 lakh scorers of JEE Main are eligible to appear for JEE Advanced.

In JEE Main 2021, the regional language option will be available for students taking the test in the respective state where the language is spoken. Students will be able to take the test in English, Hindi or Urdu at any centre across the country.

JEE Main has two papers — the first is meant for students seeking admission into BTech courses while the second is for those who want to pursue BArchitecture or BPlanning.

The NTA, which has been conducted JEE Main since 2019, had been holding the test twice a year. In 2021, Paper 1 (BTech) of JEE Main will be held four times — in February, March, April and May. Students will have the option to appear all four times and the best score will be considered for ranking. Paper 2 (BArchitecture or Bplanning) will continue to be held twice a year, in February and May.

The question papers will have two sections, 20 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and 10 questions whose answers are to be filled in as a numerical value. Among the 10 questions, the students will have to answer five questions. The 20 MCQs are compulsory.