COIMBATORE: The JEE (Advanced) papers turned out to be moderately difficult for the 1.71 lakh candidates who took the exam from more than 500 centres across the country on Sunday. Candidates and coaching institutes said while physics and chemistry sections of the papers were moderately difficult, mathematics was easy.There were 10 versions for the paper ranging from 0 to 9. The pattern of questions and mark distribution were same in all the subjects. Each subject carried a maximum mark of 61 summing up to a total of 183 marks in paper 1 and 2 each.For the first time, there was a question with a three-column table. "Section 3 had two tables with three questions each. Every table had three columns and four rows. The three columns table was a new feature in JEE (Advanced)," said the academic head for school division, TIME, Chennai, Anand Nagarajan."Section 1 for each subject was of multiple-choice type with seven questions each. A +4 if all correct options are marked. Section 2 had five questions in the integer-type with answers from 0 to 9. A +3 for the correct response and 0 in other cases," he added.In paper 1, physics was easier than last year, said the director of Aakash Educational Services Pvt Ltd , Aakash Chaudhry. "However, ambiguity in one question was observed while most questions were easy or moderately difficult," he said."Chemistry was a blend of easy and difficult problems. Physical and organic chemistry portions were given more weightage than inorganic chemistry. Mathematics was easy to moderate as it required only basic understanding of concepts," said Aakash Chaudhry.Toppr.com, an online coaching portal, found paper 2 easy than the previous year. "It was also easier than Paper 1. The paper contained a mix of single-choice (21 questions for 63 marks), multiple-correct-choice (21 questions for 84 marks) and passage-type single choice questions (12 questions for 36marks)," said the vice-president of content, Rajshekar Ratrey.A student of Bharathi Vidyala Senior Secondary School in Perumbakkam, Chennai, Ayisha Ryhana said that the paper was easier than what she and her friends expected. "I just kept my preparation to general questions and understanding concepts. It helped me with subject like math," said Ryhana. "Organic chemistry and the problems-packed physics were perhaps the only challenging part of the papers," she said.L Shyam Kumar from Neyveli said paper 1 was easier while paper 2 was tougher. He felt physics was the toughest among all the three subjects.The top 2.2 lakh candidates from JEE (Mains) were selected for the advanced test, of which nearly 1.71 lakh registered for the exam. "The boards with major share in this number are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, among others. The gender ratio is 81% male to 19% female candidates," said the organizing chairman of JEE (Advanced), professor Prem B Bisht from IIT-Madras.(Inputs from Amrutha Varshinii from Chennai)

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