National Entrance Screening Test (NEST)

National Entrance Screening Test, commonly known as NEST, is a national-level entrance examination conducted annually for admission to five-year integrated MSc programmes offered at National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) Bhubaneswar and University of Mumbai- Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (UM-DAE CEBS) Mumbai. NEST is a computer-based test held in the English language only for a duration of 3.5-hours. The examination is conducted at over 100 exam centres across India. Candidates desirous of getting admission in five-year integrated MSc programs in Basic Sciences, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at NISER Bhubaneswar or UM-DAE CEBS Mumbai, are compulsorily required to appear for NEST. The NISER Bhubaneswar and UM-DAE CEBS are the exams conducting body for NEST 2020. 

Aspirants seeking admission to five-year integrated MSc programs offered at NISER Bhubaneswar and UM-DAE CEBS must fulfil NEST 2020 eligibility criteria in order to become eligible for the entrance test. Only those candidates who satisfy the NEST eligibility criteria 2020 will be allowed to appear for NEST. Given below is an overview of the eligibility criteria of NEST 2020. 

• Qualifying Exam: A candidate must have passed or been appearing in Class 12 examination from Science stream, from a recognized board in India. Moreover, one must have passed Class 12 in the years 2019 or 2020 or must be appearing in the same in 2020. 
• Qualifying Exam Marks: One must have scored a minimum of 60% in aggregate in the Class 12 examination, while those belonging to SC/ST/PwD categories must have obtained at least 55% in Class 12. 
• Lower Age Limit: There is a lower age limit in NEST. As per the NEST 2020 eligibility criteria, candidates of general and OBC category must have been born on or after August 1, 2000. There is a relaxation of 5 years for candidates belonging to SC/ST/PwD categories, such that they must have been born on or after August 1, 1995.

Mode of Application : Online

Mode of Payment : Net Banking | Credit Card | Debit Card

The application form of NEST 2020 will be released in the first week of January 2020. The NEST 2020 application form will be released in online mode and no other mode of submitting the NEST application form will be accepted. The last date to fill and submit the application form of NEST 2020 will be notified in the third week of March 2020. After filling the NEST application form, candidates were required to pay the application fee of INR 1200/- for General/OBC male candidates and INR 600/- for Female, SC, ST and PwD category candidates. The procedure to fill the NEST application form 2020 is given below. 

• Step 1: Registration - Click on the link given to register for NEST 2020. Then click on 'Apply Online' button, followed by 'New Registration'. The registration page will appear wherein candidates will be required to fill in their name, date-of-birth, Class 10 roll number, mobile number and email Id. After entering the details, click on 'Register'. After clicking on register, the login credentials will be sent to the registered mobile number and email-Id of the candidate.
• Step 2: Logging In - Now, click on the Log-in link provided in the email/SMS or on the login button on the NEST website, and log in using the login credentials, i.e. username and password sent on the registered mobile number and email Id. 
• Step 3: Filling the NEST 2020 Application Form - Now fill the details as asked in the NEST application form 2020, like personal details, education qualifications, five exam city preferences, etc. 
• Step 4: Upload Photograph and Signature - Upload the scanned copy of passport size photograph and signature in jpg or jpeg format. Note that the size of each of these files should be less than 80 kb and the photograph should have a white background and must not be more than six months old. 
• Step 5: Pay the NEST 2020 Application Fee and Submit - Finally pay the NEST 2020 application fee as applicable for your category/gender and click on' Submit'. The NEST 2020 application fee can be remitted only in online mode using the credit card or debit card or net banking facility.

Application Fees

The NEST 2020 is a computer-based, MCQ type examination. As per the official exam pattern of NEST 2020, the question paper of NEST 2020 is prepared as per the science stream syllabus of Class 11 and 12 of NCERT/CBSE. Talking on NEST 2020 preparations tips, it is suggested that the candidates prepare for NEST 2020 from CBSE/NCERT syllabus along with mock tests and previous year question papers of the NEST. The previous year NEST question papers are available on the NEST exam website. To help students get a hang of the computer-based examination, various video tutorials and practice sessions will also be organized for candidates who have filled and submitted the NEST application form 2020, which will be accessible for these candidates through their NEST accounts.

NEST 2020 is a three-hour computer-based examination which is conducted in two sessions. The NEST 2020 question paper contains five sections, one general and four subject sections, with single or multiple MCQ type questions. From the five sections of NEST exam pattern 2020, General section is compulsory to attend and from the remaining four subject sections, one is required to attempt at least three subject sections. However, as per the exam pattern of NEST 2020, candidates can attempt as many subject sections as they wish (beyond the compulsory three) and for the determination of final NEST 2020 result, the best of the three subject section scores are taken into account along with general section scores. The general section does not have any negative marking. Although, section II-V do have negative marking. Another important point to note for the aspirants is that the language of NEST 2020 question paper is English only. Candidates can prepare for NEST 2020 from the official syllabus, which constitutes Class 11 and 12 NCERT/CBSE Science syllabus. Given below is a brief description of NEST exam pattern 2020. 

NEST 2020 Exam Pattern                                                                                                         

*At least three of these subject sections need to be attempted.  

The NEST 2020 admit card will be available for download in online mode in the fourth week of April 2020. Candidates, who successfully fill and submit the application form of NEST 2020, are allotted the admit card of NEST 2020. Applicants need to download the NEST 2020 admit card by logging into their accounts through their login credentials created at the time of filling the NEST application form. The admit card of NEST 2020 mentions the personal details of the candidate along with the details of NEST exam centre allotted to a candidate, roll number, etc. All the candidates appearing for NEST 2020 are required to carry the NEST admit card 2020 to their exam centre along with with a valid ID card, without which they will not be permitted entry to the examination hall. Candidates are advised to keep their NEST admit card safe until the counselling and admission process completes, as they are required to produce the original copy of the NEST 2020 admit card during the admission.  

The NEST answer key 2020 is released by the exam conducting authorities on the official website of the NEST, similar to previous year answer keys of NEST. The answer key of NEST 2020 will be released before the declaration of NEST result 2020. Candidates who appear in the NEST 2020 will be given facility to challenge the answers as indicated in the NEST 2020 answer key. The NEST answer key 2020 helps candidates know their performance in the exam and point out their mistakes. 

The NEST result 2020 will be declared in online mode in the third week of April 2020. The result of NEST 2020 indicates the section-wise scores of candidates in the NEST. The overall score of a candidate in NEST 2020 result was determined by adding the score obtained in the general section and the best three scores of the subject-sections. Only those candidates who obtained at least Minimum Admissible Score (MAS) and Section-wise Admissible Score (SMAS) were included in the merit list of NEST 2020 on the basis of which candidates will be called for admission and counselling procedure at NISER and UM-DAE CEBS. The link to access the NEST result 2020 will be made available as soon as it is released by the exam conducting authority.

The cutoff of NEST 2020 is the minimum score one is required to obtain in the test to become eligible for the inclusion in the merit list of NEST 2020 and admission process. As per the NEST cutoff 2020, a candidate is required to obtain the minimum required scores in sections individually (in the general section and at least three subject sections) and overall as well. 

• Section-wise Minimum Admissible Score (SMAS): SMAS is a section-wise minimum score required to be obtained by the aspirants in each section of NEST 2020 exam. SMAS is the 20% of the score which comes after taking the average of best 100 scores in that section. For instance, if the best 100 scores of General section is 20 marks out of 30, then 20% of 20 marks, i.e. 4 marks will become the SMAS for General section (for general category). The same method will be adopted for all other sections. SMAS for OBC candidates will be 90% of the SMAS obtained for general category, and for SC/ST candidates, it will be 50% of that obtained for general candidates. Candidates will be required to obtain SMAS in the general section and at least three of the subject-sections to become eligible for further admission process. 
• Minimum Admissible Score (MAS):  The MAS is the overall score candidate is required to obtain in order to become eligible for further admission process of NEST 2020. It can vary from year to year, for instance, MAS for NEST 2019 was 90 (50% of the total 180 marks paper). The overall score of a candidate will include the scores obtained in the General and best-of-three subject sections. However, it will be important for a candidate to obtain SMAS in each of the sections whose scores are considered for MAS. Similar to SMAS, the MAS for OBC category candidates will be 90% of the MAS determined for general category and in case of SC/ST candidates, it will be 50% of the MAS determined for general category.

Mode of Counselling: Online, Offline

The counselling for NEST 2020 will be conducted by National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) and University of Mumbai - Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (UM-DAE CEBS) separately for their intake. The seat matrix for the NEST counselling 2020 in NISER and UM-DAE CEBS will be released with the official notification of NEST 2020. The NEST 2020 counselling will be conducted in offline mode and both the NISER and UM-DAE CEBS will release their time and venue for the NEST counselling after the declaration of NEST result.