National Entrance Screening Test


The National Entrance Screening Test is an annual college entrance examination in India, conducted for admission into the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar and the Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai. These two institutes use NEST as a sole criterion for admission to their undergraduate programs. Also, the Integrated Science Education & Research Centre of Visva-Bharati University has been using the merit list of NEST for admission into its undergraduate program. NEST was conducted in 91 cities across India in June 2019.
As of 2018, obtaining a seat in NISER has become highly competitive. From a total of roughly 80,000 applicants nationwide, only 0.32% qualify for admission. As of 2018, the total intake of NISER and UM-DAE CBS is 200+2 students and 45+2 students respectively.
NEST is conducted in both English as well as Hindi language.

Pattern of the test

The NEST question paper has five sections. The first section, which is compulsory for all candidates, includes general questions. The next four sections includes questions on Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. Candidates may opt to answer any three of the four sections if they are willing to get admission in CBS, otherwise they have to answer from all the sections if they are willing to get in the merit list of NISER. All sections carry equal marks. The questions are aimed at testing the comprehension and analytic ability of the candidates. The questions are of objective type with four answers given for each question. There may only be one relatively correct answer for each question. Wrong answers are awarded negative marks.

Important dates

The number of students taking this examination has been increasing since the exam was first conducted in 2007. In 2018 200+2 seats were for NISER and 45+2 seats for UM-DAE CBS. About 60000 students appeared in the exam. The exam was conducted in two sittings. 1000hrs to 1300hrs and 1500hrs to 1800hrs.
The availability of seats in recent years is as given in table below:


InstituteIntake Intake Intake Intake Intake Intake Intake Intake
National Institute of Science Education and Research 40405260606060100
Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences 2012353535353535