Plus-two students who are keen on Science study and Research can appear for the NEST -- National Entrance Screening Test, 2021, to be held on June 14 for admission to the Five-Year Integrated MSc Programme in two reputed universities.
The online test will be conducted at 92 places including 13 centres in Kerala. There will be two sessions, one from 9 am to 12:30 pm, and another from 2:30 pm to 6 pm. The test comprises 50 marks each of multiple-choice questions from Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Physics. There won't be questions on general studies this time.
The entrance exam is the toughest among all the science entrance exams as per the previous years' exam analysis. One needs to put at least six months' hard work to score well in the NEST. However, if candidates strategise well, then even 2-3 months would be sufficient.
Though you may attempt all the four streams in the test, the final ranking will be done after taking the best marks from three subjects. Both institutions will have a separate rank list. Some questions even have negative marking. You can prepare by checking the site for the syllabus and last year’s question papers. Exam results will be declared on June 30.
Best books to practice for NEST 2020 entrance exam
Candidates need to get the best books for NEST preparation to score well in each section. Some of the recommended books for NEST 2020 are:
Biology (Objective Biology with Questions by Dinesh), Chemistry (Objective Chemistry with Questions by RPH Editorial), Mathematics (Objective Mathematics with Practice Papers by RD Sharma) and Physics (Objective Physics with Questions by DC Pandey).
Online application is open till April 30.
The application fee is Rs 1,200. Those who are differently-abled, along with those who belong to the Scheduled Caste and women irrespective of caste or religion only need to pay Rs 600 and it can be done through net banking/Card. For more details log on to www.nestexam.com
Institutions and the seats
Admissions to two self-governing institutions that are under the Central government’s atomic energy research department will be conducted with the NEST. These institutions are:
1) Bhuvneshwar’s National Institute of Science Education and Research or NISAR; www.niser.ac.in), 200 seats and
2) University of Mumbai –Department of Atomic Energy Centre of Excellence in Basic Sciences; www.cbs.ac.in) 57 seats.
Reservation quotas
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and differently-abled will be allotted 15, 7.5, 27 5% seat reservation. The financially backward classes will be given 10% reservation in total seats.
Entrance eligibility
Students of Class 11 and 12 with Science as their main subject and should have scored above 60 marks in the plus-two exam. Those who had passed out in 2019 and 2020 and those awaiting their results this year are eligible to appear for entrance. Birthdate should not be before August 1, 2001. The scheduled caste and differently-abled are allowed 5 years relaxation in age and they only need to secure 55% marks.
There are facilities to stay at the campus and study. Apart from an annual scholarship of 60,000, there is also a summer internship annual grant of 20,000 which will be sufficient for other expenses. And those who excel in their studies can apply for the BARC Training School entrance. For details mail est-exam@niser.ac.in.