National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) 2009 for admission to the 5 year M.SC (Integrated) Programme

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 CBS), Mumbai

National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) 2009
for admission to the 5 year M.SC (Integrated) Programme

The National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) for admission to the 5 year M.SC (Integrated) Programme 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 CBS), Mumbai will be held from 1 pm to 4 pm on 10th May, 2009 (Sunday) at over 25 centres across the country.

NISER and UM-DAE CBS, started by Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India in 2007 aims at training scientific manpower for carrying out cutting edge scientific research and for providing input to scientific programs of Department of Atomic Energy and other Applied Science institutions in the country.

General category and OBC Students securing at least 60% marks in aggregate (or equivalent grade) in Class XII (or equivalent) examination from any recognized Board in India are eligible to apply. SC/ST candidates and Persons with Disability (PD) need only 55% marks. If letter grade is given by a Board, a certificate from the Board specifying equivalent percentage marks will be required, in the absence of which, the decision of the respective Admissions Committee will be final. Those who have passed Class XII qualifying examination in 2007 or 2008 or are appearing in 2009 are eligible to apply.

General/OBC applicants must have been born on or after 1.10.1984. The age limit is relaxable by 5 years in case of SC/ST/PD candidates. There are 52 seats at NISER and 30 at UM-DAE CBS. The details of seats and their break-up are given at http://niser.ac.in/NEST and ttp://www.tifr.res.in/~cbs.  Application form for NEST can be submitted online at http://niser.ac.in/NEST as per the instructions given there. It can also be downloaded from this website. It may also be obtained by Post from 'The Chief Coordinator, NEST-2009 National Institute of Science Education and Research, Institute of Physics Campus, Bhubaneswar- 751 005' by sending a request to reach there latest by March 6, 2009.

Completed application forms/printout of the online application form, along with application fee of Rs. 500/- for General category and OBC male candidates and Rs.250/- for SC/ST/PD candidates and female candidates,  in the form of a Demand Draft in favour of NISERNEST payable at Bhubaneswar should reach 'The Chief Coordinator, NEST-2009' latest by April 3, 2009.

NEST will be held at Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru/Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Panaji, Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong and Srinagar.

The question paper of NEST will have five sections of which the first section having general questions is compulsory for all candidates. The next four sections will include questions from (1) Biology (2) Chemistry (3) Mathematics and (4) Physics. Candidates may opt to answer any three of the four sections. All sections carry equal marks. The questions will be aimed testing the comprehension and analytic ability of the candidates. The questions will be objective type with four answers given for each question. There may be one or more correct answers for each question. Wrong answers will be awarded negative marks.

The syllabus for the entrance examination is given in Appendix II of the Information Brochure available at http://www.niser.ac.in/NEST/brochure2009.pdf. The question paper will be in English.

For details visit http://www.niser.ac.in/NEST/