NEST 2025: Counselling, Result, Cutoff, Merit List, & Exam Date

Besides, top performers at NISER and UM-DAE CEBS, securing overall grades above a certain threshold at the end of the programme, are eligible to appear directly for the interview for admission to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) training school.

NEST 2024 exam notification was released by the examination conducting body on March 27, 2024. According to the official notification this year NEST exam is scheduled to be conducted on June 30, 2024 across India.

According to NEST important dates, the application form released on April 3, 2024.  

NEST is an important exam for students who are interested in pursuing careers in basic sciences and research. The two institutes that offer admission through NEST, NISER and UM-DAE CEBS, are both highly regarded for their academic excellence and research output.

Candidates seeking admission to NISER and UM–DAE CEBS for the Integrated MSc programme 2024–29 should be from the regular science stream in classes 11 and 12. All aspiring candidates must write the NEST 2024 examination. Candidates must have passed the class12 examination from any recognised Board in India in the years 2022 or 2023 or should be appearing for the same in 2024. Candidates who are appearing for the board examination in 2024 must pass it by the time of admission into the programme.

NEST 2024 Examination is expected to be scheduled in the month of June 2024. Now that there is ample time for the NEST 2024 aspirants to preapare for the examination, candidates can go through the detailed NEST 2024 syllabus in order to ace the examination.

As, the examination conducting body has not released the NEST 2024 syllabus, therefore aspirants are left with the option of going through the NEST 2023 syllabus. It is highly expected that NEST syllabus doesn't change year to year, so candidates are suggested to either go to the CUET 2023 official website and search for NEST syllabus there.

For better ease in accessing the NEST 2023 syllabus, candidates can check the NEST 2024 (Expected) syllabus stream wise and then subject wise here on this page for free. 

Yes! Mock tests are practised to identify where one stands during the preparation period. If you get fewer marks, you will get to identify the topics that you need to give more time. Once, you start working on the weak subjects and topics and get relevant marks in your mock test then you are ready to appear for the entrance exam.

The following are the details mentioned in the NEST 2024 result pdf:

• Candidate's name
• Roll Number
• Total Marks
• Percentile
• Merit Rank
• Category
• J & K/ Ladakh Rank
• Divyangjan Rank

The NEST examination is a Computer Based Test (CBT). The candidate will enter all the requisite details at the given computer terminal. The questions will be displayed on the monitor. The answers to each question are to be provided at the computer terminal using the given electronic equipment. Details of how to answer at the terminal will be provided before the examination.

NISER, Bhubaneshwar and UM-DAE CEBS, Mumbai released the notification on March 27, 2024 on the official website. Along with notification it also released the NEST exam flyer. 

The notification was released in online mode on the official website. Along with release of the notification the exam conducting authorities also released the application form to register for the exam on April 3, 2024. 

Applicants are advised to keep checking official website or NEST 2024 page to be updated about the events and accordingly prepare for the exam.

Merit list rank preparation or the final ranking of the candidates will be based on percentile scores calculated from the best three-section scores. The merit list will be published based on the following criteria: 

1. A candidate is required to score more than SMAS in at least three subject sections. Then we say that the candidate is SMAS-qualified. 

2. The total score of an SMAS-qualified candidate is the sum of the scores of her/his three best scores from the SMAS securing sections. 

3. A candidate is required to score equal to or above a total Minimum Admissible Percentile (MAP) to get a merit rank. 

4. If the percentiles of two or more candidates become equal (i.e., in the case of a tie), then the best scores in the sections of the two students would be compared. The student with the higher score would get a better rank.

5. If the tie persists, the students would be given the same provisional rank at the time of declaration of the result, and the tie would be broken by comparing class 12th marks during admission/counselling. 

6. If the tie still persists, then the younger student will get a higher rank.

The deadline for candidates to rasie objection against the NEST 2025 Answer Key is June 25, 2025, as per the official notification released on the official website. Also, the NEST Answer Key PDF was made available on June 23, 2025, for candidates to be able to challenge the answer key and to be able to evaluate their NEST 2025 Scores.

The Application fee for the NEST Exam for the upcoming academic session 2025 is yet to be released however, as per the previous information, the NEST Application fee for male candidates of the General and OBC categories is INR 1,400/–. The application fee for candidates in the SC/ST/Divyangjan categories and for all female candidates is INR 700/–. Payments can be made using credit card/debit card/net–banking through an online payment gateway. You may use Mastercard/Visa/RuPay cards or UPI as payment options.

The exam conducting authorities will release the admit card at least two week before the commencement of the exam. The NEST hall ticket will mention following details of the applicants

• Application Number
• Roll Number
• Candidate's Name
• Candidate's Address
• Date
• Time
• Shift
• Reporting time
• Venue and Emergency contact number 

In case of any discrepancy in the details mentioned in the admit card, applicants need to immediately connect to the exam conducting authorities by the Emergency number mentioned in admit card. 

Applicants who want to appear in NEST exam, need to download the admit card to appear in the examination. Applicants are required to first check whether they are using recommended browser or not for downloading the NEST 2024 admit card. After that they also need to have an active internet connection at their place before downloading the admit card.  

Students need to enter user ID & password followed by entering Captcha if mentioned on the login portal. After entering these details the admit card will be opened in a new window, now save the copy for future reference. 

Candidates have to carry any one of the following documents will be considered as valid for appearing in the NEST 2024 examination: 

• Passport 

• Aadhaar Card or Enrolment slip

• Voter ID

• Driver's License 

• PAN Card

If any student does not have any of these id card then they must bring their admit card of class 12th board exam in the examination hall. 

Important things to remember for online application are mentioned below:

? Correct email address should be provided. The NEST office communicates with candidates through this e-mail ID only. 

? The phone number that is provided during the application should be accessible by the candidate. The NEST office uses this phone number to reach a candidate or to send SMS messages whenever necessary. 

? A properly scanned and cropped recent passport-sized photograph should be uploaded. A properly scanned and cropped signature should be uploaded. 

? The photograph and signature files must be not more than 80 KB each and must be in. JPG or JPEG format only. 

? Applications incomplete in any respect will not be accepted. 

? Any dispute arising out of or related to the NEST 2024 examination shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court. 

The candidates admitted to the programme are eligible to receive an annual scholarship of INR 60,000 through the DISHA program of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. In addition, the scholarship recipients receive a grant of INR 20,000 per annum for summer internships. Candidates selected by DST for the INSPIRE-SHE program are endorsed for the INSPIRE scholarship by NISER and UM-DAE CEBS. Alumni of the programme are presently pursuing PhD at reputed universities and institutes in India & abroad.

Applicants are encouraged to practise by using a mock test link that will be made available on the NEST 2025 website several days before the exam date. Practice sessions on the computer-based test will be available for all applicants on the application portal after online registration and complete submission of the online application. The application portal will be accessible with the correct login credentials only. 

Students who want to qualify the NEST exam first they must complete the books of class 11th and 12th. 

Applicants can follow the below-mentioned books for the NEST preparation.

1. For chemistry, Wiley, KL CHUGH & Dinesh publication books are good

2. For Physics, DC Pandey & HC Verma's books.

3. For Mathematics, R D Sharma, SN DEY books

4. For Biology subject, Objective Biology by Dinesh

Along with these books NCERT & NCERT EXEMPLAR is a must for applicants for all individual subjects. 

Ideally applicants should not skip any pericular section before appearing in the NEST exam. As authority will consider the marks from top 3 sections to prepare the merit list. Hence even if one paper from any section except math if don't go well then by securing good marks in math section you can increase your chances of qualifying the exam. Along with this if there are easy questions in math section then there is high probability to secure good marks in it. 

Hence it is advised not to skip any section while preparing for the NEST exam. 

Candidates must read the following points to understand about the ‘section-wise’ Minimum Admissible Score (SMAS) or section-wise cut-off marks.

1. The total score of each candidate will be the sum of his/her best three scores out of the four sections.

2. For each section, “20% of the average of the best 100 scores in that section” will be considered as the Section–wise Minimum Admissible Score (SMAS). For example, if the average of the best 100 scores in the Chemistry section is 48 out of 60, then SMAS for the Chemistry section would be 48*0.20 = 9.6 marks, similar to other sections.

3. SMAS for different sections can be of different numerical values.

4. SMAS for the two sessions, for any particular section, can be of different numerical value.

5. SMAS for OBC students would be 90% of the respective SMAS for the general category Students. For example, if in the Chemistry section, the SMAS is 9.6 for general category students, then the SMAS for OBC students would be 8.64 (90% of 9.6).

6. SMAS for SC/ST/Divyangjan students would be 50% of respective SMAS for general category students. For example, if in the Chemistry section, the SMAS is 9.6 for general category students, then the SMAS for SC/ST/Divyangjan students would be 4.8 (50% of 9.6).

The National Entrance Screening Test (nest) is generally tougher than NEET but some sections in NEET, like Biology, are more challenging due to vast syllabus coverage and competition.

Candidates must know that the allotment of an examination centre by the NEST Committee has to be regarded as final, and the request for a change of centre will, in general, not be entertained. The address of the test venue allotted to the applicant will be mentioned on the NEST admit card.

If two applicants will score the same percentile marks in the NEST 2024 exam then autority will consider marks of class 12th exam for tie breaking. In case of tie between the marks of class 12th exam then candidate who will be younger given preference over other who will be older. 

Though in most other exams, the older candidates get preference but in case of NEST exam, it is different.