Two major shifts have been observed in the JEE Advanced 2026 qualification data: the qualification rate for females has seen its highest increase in the last six years, while the qualification rate for Scheduled Castes (SC) has crossed the 50% mark for the first time.
The SC qualification rate rose from 40.41% in 2025 to 50.16%. This represents an increase of 9.8 percentage points, with 3,357 additional SC candidates qualifying this year. Improvement was also seen among Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, whose qualification rate increased from 33.99% to 42.14%.
“Number of Female Candidates Qualifiers Crosses the 10,000 Mark”
There has been a significant rise in the number of women this year as well. The qualification rate among registered female candidates reached 23.4%, while the rate among women who appeared for both papers stood at 24.9%—the highest in the last six years.
Out of 43,112 registered female candidates, 40,562 appeared for both papers, and 10,107 qualified. This marks the first time the number of women qualifying has exceeded 10,000.
Women now account for 17.76% of those who qualified for JEE Advanced 2026. This upward trend is also evident over the long term; in 2016, 4,570 women qualified. By 2026, this figure rose to 10,107, reflecting an increase of over 121% in a decade.
SC and ST qualifiers account for approximately 39% of the total
A total of 22,235 candidates from the SC and ST categories qualified, representing about 39% of the 56,880 candidates who qualified for JEE Advanced 2026. The qualification rates for the SC and ST categories were also higher than that of the General category. The qualification rate for the General category dropped from 43% in 2025 to 39.8% in 2026.
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