CollegeDekho News Desk, New Delhi:The first two days of JEE Main 2026 Session 1 turned out to be 'Moderate to Difficult' with Chemistry and Mathematics subjects turning out to be worrisome for students. Compared to the previous year, the difficulty level of the JEE Mains exam has slightly increased, and the same has been confirmed by Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya, a popular JEE coaching institute. While interacting with subject experts during the YouTube live session organised by CollegeDekho, a similar opinion was shared. The increased difficulty level might lead to aslight decline in JEE Main Cutoff 2026. While interacting with test takers during the YouTube live session of CollegeDekho, many students indicated that they are expected to score 150-180 marks in the JEE Main 2026 Session 1 exam. However, many test takers are in dilema whether they can really score 99 percentile with 150+ marks.

Is 99 Percentile really possible with 150 Plus in the JEE Main Exam 2026 Session 1?

Based on the marks vs percentile analysis and difficulty level rating shared by subject experts on JEE Main Question Paper 2026, here is what a student can expect for 150+ marks -

• As the difficulty level of the paper is slightly tougher this year, a test taker with exactly 150 marks might score around 98.8 percentile. However, students scoring between 151 to 159 marks are expected to score around the 99.04 to 99.1 percentile. Therefore, for 150+ marks 99 percentile can be possible
• This year, Chemistry was the toughest subject in the exam. Therefore, it might directly impact theJEE Main Chemistry Percentile Score 2026. Due to the sharp decline in the number of good attempts, scoring in the 97+ percentile in the Chemistry section could be challenging for students
• Students scoring 160 - 180 marks might score between 99.2 and 99.5 percentile in the Session exam. This is considered a 'Very Good Performance' considering the tougher question paper this year

As per the above prediction, students who are attempting more than 40 questions correctly in the Session 1 exam are expected to score between 99.04 to 99.5 percentile. However, the actual percentile scores released by NTA might vary due to the normalisation process. Students are advised not to panic and prepare better for the Session 2 exam, along with board exams preparation.

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