The NTA opened JEE (Main) 2027 Session 1 applications on 24 October 2026. The form closes on 22 November at 11:50 PM, the exam city is announced on 30 December, admit cards come on 13 January, and the paper is held on 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 28 January 2027. Every date is on our registration page, taken from the NTA notice.
From the end of October to 20 January is about twelve weeks. That is enough time to make a real difference to a score, and not enough to do everything. This is how to spend it.
First, fill in the form — this week
Do not leave it to the last three days. The NTA's site slows down near every deadline, and a mistake you notice after 22 November can only be fixed in the correction window, 27 to 29 November. Apply on jeemain.nta.nic.in only, keep the confirmation page, and note your application number somewhere you will find it in April — you will use the same one for Session 2.
The shape of the twelve weeks
| Weeks | Main job | Full papers |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 (to late November) | Finish or repair the chapters you have not done | 1 a week |
| 5–8 (December) | Revise the high-weight chapters; practise numericals | 2 a week |
| 9–11 (to mid-January) | Full papers and their reviews | 3 a week |
| 12 (the last week) | Light revision, sleep, the timing of your shift | 1, early in the week |
The exact numbers matter less than the direction: fewer new chapters every week, more full papers every week.
Weeks 1 to 4: close the gaps, but choose them
You will not finish a syllabus in four weeks that you have not finished in a year. Pick. List every chapter in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and mark each one done, half or not started. Then look at which of the half and not started chapters carry the most questions — our chapter-wise weightage article has the counts from past papers — and finish those. A half-done high-weight chapter is worth more than a perfect low-weight one.
Take one full paper a week from the first week. It tells you where you actually are, and the first one is always humbling. That is the point.
Weeks 5 to 8: revision and numericals
Each subject has 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 numerical-value questions, and both are marked +4 and −1. The numerical ones have no options to lean on, and the answer must be rounded off to the nearest integer as the NTA asks. Students lose marks there not because they cannot solve the question but because they enter an unrounded value or slip in the last step. Do a set of numericals every day in December and check how many you lose to rounding and arithmetic alone. Our article on numerical answers and rounding covers the common traps.
This is also the time to revise the chapters you did in Class 11 and have not touched since. They are on the paper too.
Weeks 9 to 11: full papers, and the evening after
Three full papers a week, each sat in one go for three hours, at 9:00 AM or 3:00 PM — the two shift times in the notice — so your brain is used to working at that hour. Each paper gets its review the same evening: every wrong answer, every unattempted one you could have done, every one that took more than four minutes. Write down why. By the second week the reasons repeat, and those reasons are what you revise.
Do not take a fourth paper instead of reviewing the third. An unreviewed mock teaches you almost nothing.
Week 12: protect the score you have built
No new chapters. Short revision of formulas and your mistake book, one paper early in the week, normal sleep. Check your admit card for the reporting time and the centre, and do the journey once if you can. The last thirty days article is written for NEET, but its advice on the final week works for any exam.
And if Session 1 goes badly?
It counts for less than you fear. JEE (Main) has two sessions, and the better of your two scores is used — the second is in April 2027, and the NTA will open its form separately. Treat January as the best full mock you will ever get: real paper, real centre, real nerves. Then use February and March to fix exactly what it showed you. Our article on which score counts explains how the two sessions combine.
What to leave alone
- New books. The book you have is enough. A new one in December is a way of feeling busy.
- Rank predictions from marks. Your percentile depends on how everyone in your shift scored, so no one can give it to you in advance. The percentile calculator shows the exact arithmetic once you know your place.
- Other people's mock scores. The only comparison that helps is with your own last paper.
Nikaalle is free to start, from a non-profit trust: JEE (Main) mocks timed and marked like the paper, with numericals marked wrong when unrounded, as they will be in January. [Start here](/register?exam=JEE_MAIN).
Checked against the official sources on 27 October 2026.