MSc Maths Entrance Exam: IIT JAM or CUET PG?

You need IIT JAM if you want an MSc Mathematics seat at an IIT. You need the CUET PG Mathematics paper, coded SCQP19, if you want Delhi University or another university that admits on CUET PG scores. Both accept students in their final year of the degree.

As of 24 October 2026, the JAM 2027 site lists 24 October 2026 as the last date to apply (extended). A student who has missed that window should plan for JAM 2028 plus CUET PG 2027.

As of 24 October 2026, CUET PG 2027 is expected in March 2027, with the information bulletin and registration window due around December 2026. NTA's CUET PG page is where the dates will be confirmed.

The JAM format is on the JAM syllabus and pattern page. The CUET PG marking scheme and duration come from the NTA CUET (PG) 2026 information bulletin, and the 2027 bulletin may change them. For JAM's degree and mark rules, use our guide to IIT JAM Mathematics eligibility.

No. Delhi University's mathematics department says admission to its two-year MSc Mathematics has been based on CUET PG scores since 2023-24. There is no separate Delhi paper to prepare for, whatever an older list says.

The Delhi University 2026-27 bulletin of information is the latest published, and the 2027-28 bulletin may change the rules. It sets out what you need:

• Paper: you must appear in CUET paper SCQP19, which NTA lists as "Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Electronics".
• Category C1: a three-year or four-year bachelor's degree from a recognised university with at least 24 credits from at least six papers in Mathematics.
• Category C2: a bachelor's degree in Mathematics, or a four-year degree with a Mathematics major or minor, from Delhi University itself.
• Marks: at least 50% aggregate, or 45% for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (SC/ST/PwBD) candidates.

We added up the seat table in that bulletin. It has 20 rows: two campus departments, 17 colleges and the Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board (NCWEB). C1 has 275 seats and C2 has 269, which is 544 in all. Delhi University says seat numbers may vary, so treat 544 as the scale, not a promise. The seats are spread across many colleges, so your CUET PG score is the single number that ranks you for all of them.

For reference only (2026 cycle), NTA's bulletin set the application fee for up to two test papers at ₹1,400 for General, ₹1,200 for Economically Weaker Section or Other Backward Classes non-creamy layer (EWS/OBC-NCL), ₹1,100 for SC/ST and ₹1,000 for PwBD candidates. Registration ran from 14 December 2025 to 14 January 2026, and the exams ran in March 2026 (2026 cycle, for reference only). To see what SCQP19 covers, use our CUET PG syllabus guide.

The JAM Mathematics paper is selective in marks, not in its cut-off. In JAM 2026, 12,059 candidates registered, 9,617 appeared and 3,463 (36%) qualified, with a General cut-off of 12.65 out of 100, per the IIT Bombay JAM 2026 statistical report.

The report also gives the spread of raw marks for the 9,617 who appeared. We added the bands together and worked out the shares ourselves:

Shares are rounded. The 40-and-above row adds the report's 40–50 (74), 50–60 (17), 60–70 (8), 70–80 (2) and 80–90 (1) bands. From these bands:

• 5,739 candidates (59.7%) were in the below-0 or 0-to-10 bands.
• 1,024 (10.6%) were in the 20-and-above bands.
• 315 (3.3%) were in the 30-and-above bands.

Qualifying is not the same as getting a seat. JAM 2027's organising site advertises 3,000 seats across the participating IITs, while the 2026 report counts 15,814 candidates who qualified across all seven JAM papers. 15,814 ÷ 3,000 ≈ 5.3 (our model: 2026 qualifiers across all seven papers divided by 2027 advertised seats; not a Mathematics-specific figure, and it compares two different years, so use it only as a sense of scale).

The 2026 JAM Mathematics results are one year of data, and cut-offs are set afresh each year. Our recommendation is to treat 12.65 as the floor and aim for a practice score well above it. For the ranks at which individual IITs have closed, see our IIT JAM Maths cut-off guide.

Prepare for both if you are eligible for both. The exams are separate applications run by different bodies, and a poor JAM result does not close the CUET PG route. Choose one only if the other cannot give you a seat you would take.

The difference to plan around is format. JAM includes multiple-select and numerical-answer sections. You cannot solve those by eliminating options, so practise them on their own. CUET PG is a single-answer paper. In it, a wrong answer costs one mark against four for a correct one, so a quarter of a correct answer's value.

Our advice is to build the subject base first, then add timed papers in each exam's format. The subject base is the part both routes reward. The format practice is what differs.

Run these five steps in order. Steps 1, 2 and 5 are tests with a pass and a fail. Step 3 is a decision step. Step 4 sorts you into three results. Together they tell you which exam to put first.

The 20 and 10 thresholds in step 4 are our reading of the 2026 mark bands above, not an official standard.

You can start with real analysis and linear algebra now. We teach pure mathematics as live online classes and recorded courses, with assignments, previous-year-question discussion, mock tests and analytics. Real Analysis is taught by Vivek Sir, and SB Sir designs all our test series and conceptual tests. Our course store lists the current courses, and you can ask us for prices and start dates.

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