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 English language only. It is a 3-hour exam held in the first week of June 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 exam conducting body for NEST 2019. The online application process for NEST would start in the first week of January, 2019 and close by the first week of March, 2019.  Admit cards for NEST 2019 should be available for download from the last week of April, 2019.  The NEST 2019 results is expected to be declared by the conducting body by the third week of June.  

Aspirants seeking admission to five-year integrated MSc programs offered at NISER Bhubaneswar and UM-DAE CEBS must fullfill NEST 2019 eligibility criteria in order to become eligible for the entrance test. Only those candidates who satisfy the NEST eligibility criteria 2019 will be allowed to appear for NEST. Given below is an overview of the eligibility criteria of NEST 2019. 

• Qualifying Exam: A candidate must have passed or be appearing in Class 12 examination from science stream, from a recognized board in India. Moreover, one must have passed the Class 12 in the years 2017 or 2018 or must be appearing in the same in 2019. 
• 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 2019 eligibility criteria, candidates of general and OBC category must have been born on or after August 1, 1999. 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, 1994.

Mode of Application : Online

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

Application Fees

The application form of NEST 2019 will be released in the first week of January 2019 tentatively. The NEST 2019 application form will be released in the online mode and no other mode of submitting NEST application form will be accepted. The last date to fill and submit the application form of NEST 2019 will likely be in the first week of March 2019. After filling the NEST application form, candidates will be required to pay the application fee of INR 1,000/- for General/OBC male candidates and INR 500/- for Female, SC, ST and PwD category candidates. The procedure to fill NEST application form 2019 is given below. 

• Step 1: Registration - Click on the link given above to register for NEST 2019 (The link will be made available once the application form of NEST 2019 is released by the authorities.) 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 2019 Application Form - Now fill the details as asked in the NEST application form 2019, 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 2019 Application Fee and Submit - Finally pay the NEST 2019 application fee as applicable for your category/gender and click on Submit. The NEST 2019 application fee can be remitted only in the online mode using the credit card or debit card or net banking facility. 

The NEST 2019 is a computer-based, MCQ type examination. As per the official exam pattern of NEST 2019, the question paper of NEST 2019 will be prepared as per the science stream syllabus of Class 11 and 12 of NCERT/CBSE. Talking on NEST 2019 preparations tips, previous year candidates suggest aspirants to prepare for NEST 2019 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 2019, which will be accessible for these candidates through their NEST accounts.

The NEST 2019 is a three-hour, computer-based examination to be held from 10 AM to 1 PM in the first week of June 2019, tentatively. The NEST 2019 question paper will contain five sections, one general and four subject sections, with single or multiple MCQ type questions. From the five sections of NEST exam pattern 2019, General section will be compulsory to attend and from the remaining four Subject sections, one will be required to attempt at least three subject sections. However, as per the exam pattern of NEST 2019, candidates can attempt as many subject sections as they wish (beyond the compulsory three) and for the determination of final NEST 2019 result, the best of the three subject section scores will be taken into account along with general section scores. The general section will not have any negative marking, and in subject sections, some questions will have negative marking. Another important point to note for the aspirants is that the language of NEST 2019 question paper will be English only. Candidates can prepare for NEST 2019 from the official syllabus, which constitutes Class 11 and 12 NCERT/CBSE Science syllabus. Given below is a brief description of NEST exam pattern 2019. 

NEST 2019 Exam Pattern                                                                                                         

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

The NEST 2019 admit card will be available for download in online mode from the last week of April 2019. Candidates, who successfully fill and submit the application form of NEST 2019, will receive the admit card of NEST 2019. Applicants will be able to download the NEST 2019 admit card by logging into their accounts through their login credentials created at the time of NEST application form filling. The admit card of NEST 2019 will mention 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 2019 are required to carry the NEST admit card 2019 to their exam centre along 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 will be required to produce the original copy of the NEST 2019 admit card during the admission.  

The NEST result 2019 will be declared in the online mode by the third week of June 2019. The result of NEST 2019 will indicate the section-wise scores of candidates in the NEST. The overall score of a candidate in NEST 2019 result will be determined by adding the score obtained in the general section and best three scores of the subject-sections. Only those candidates who obtain at least Minimum Admissible Score (MAS) and Section-wise Admissible Score (SMAS) will be included in the merit list of NEST 2019 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 2019 will be made available here as soon as it is released by the exam conducting authority.

The NEST answer key 2019 will be 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 2109 will be released before the declaration of NEST result 2019. Candidates who appear in the NEST 2019 will be able to challenge the answers as indicated in the NEST 2019 answer key. The exam conducting bodies will also release a final and revised answer key of NEST 2019. The NEST answer key 2019 will help candidates know their performance in the exam and point out their mistakes. 

The cutoff of NEST 2019 is the minimum score one is required to obtain in the test to become eligible for the inclusion in the merit list of NEST 2019 and admission process. As per the NEST cutoff 2019, 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 the section-wise score is the minimum score required to be obtained by the aspirants in each section of NEST 2019 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 one is required to obtain to become eligible for further admission process of NEST 2019. It can vary from year to year, for instance, MAS for NEST 2018 was 90 (50% of the total 180 marks paper). The overall score of a candidate will include the scores obtained in 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: Offline

The counselling for NEST 2019 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 2019 in NISER and UM-DAE CEBS will be released with the official notification of NEST 2019. The NEST 2019 counselling will be conducted in the 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, which will be announced in the third week of June 2019.