IISER APTITUDE TEST 2023 – Eligibility, Exam Pattern, Cutoff Marks, ALL DETAILS

There is so much confusion about the IISER aptitude test and admission into IISER, regarding eligibility criteria, and the exam pattern, someone is stating only the top 1% of students of the state board are eligible. No, it’s not true. There is so much confusion regarding marking and admitting channels. In this article, all your confusion will be cleared.

 

What are IISERs?

Just like you have IIT, the Indian institute of technology for B.tech degrees – the top engineering College in India; IITs. So, similarly, for research and basic sciences or to become a scientist you have the Indian institute of science education and research (IISER). Similar to IISc, Bangalore ( Indian institute of science), you have IISERs. There are 7 IISERs in India – IISER Pune, IISER Kolkata, IISER Mohali, IISER Bhopal, IISER Berhampur, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, IISER Tirupati. There are other research institutes in India, for example – NISER Bhubaneswar, Centre for excellence in basic sciences (CEBS) in Mumbai, there is IACS (Indian association for the cultivation of science)  which is even older than IISc, Bangalore but people don’t know about these institutions. There are ISI & CMI where packages are more than even many IITs. Students doing internships in ISI and CMI get 1 to 2,00,000 per month. So, you can imagine the level of these institutes in India. Therefore, these are the premier research institutes in India you can aim for if you want to pursue a career in research or you want to become a scientist. 

 

Admission to IISERs:

Now, the IISER aptitude test is the entrance exam to get into IISERs just like for IITs we have to qualify for JEE mains and JEE advance. 

To get into IISERs, there were initially 3 ways – 

• IAT, 
• KVPY & 
• JEE ADVANCED.

KVPY is now abolished so there are only 2 ways left, i.e., 

• JEE ADVANCE & 
• IAT.

IISER aptitude test fills more than 75% of the seats. If seats are not filled through JEE ADVANCE, they are filled through IAT.

All IISERs together conduct IAT and one IISER conducts the IAT test. 

 

Eligibility Criteria:

To get into IISER, what are the eligibility criteria? 

There are majorly 3 criteria although there are many minor factors as well which you can check on the official website. 

1. For the IISER aptitude test 2023, your class 12 should be in 2023 or 2022 so you can be a maximum of a one-year dropper or your 12th should be in that year. 
2. Your percentage in class 12th ( overall percentage not just science, not just PCM or PCB). Overall in your Class 12 mark sheet, you should get 
   1. for general and OBC – minimum 60% 
   2. for SC/ST)PWD – minimum 55%. 
3. The 3rd criterion is simple, that is, you should have a minimum of 3 of the science subjects- physics, chemistry, biology, or math. You can also have PCMB in your Class 12. 

So, these are the primary 3 eligibility criteria. 

There are other minor criteria for foreign students which you can check on the official website.

 

Exam pattern:

The exam pattern test is very simple. There are 4 sections – physics, chemistry, math and biology. Each section has 15 questions. In each question, 

• +3 marks are awarded for a correct answer 
• -0.75 marks are deducted for incorrect answer 

So, for 15 Questions in each section, you get a total of 60 questions. 

• It is a 3-hour examination. 
• So, you have to solve 60 questions in 3 hours, about 3 minutes per question. 
• The total mark is 180 marks. 

Now, a lot of people are having doubts about whether there are any section-wise cut-off marks for each subject. No, there is no such thing as in the NEST examination. There are section-wise cut-off marks for NISER & CEBS but for IISERs, there is no section-wise cut-off. 

Students need clarification on whether math or biology is compulsory or not. No, nothing is mandatory in IAT. You can just do math and biology or you can do physics and chemistry also. You can just do the chemistry portion and leave the examination hall. It is totally up to you. 

Obviously, you won’t do that because you will not get marks. The thing is nothing is compulsory, there are no section-wise cut-off marks. 

Now a lot of PCB/PCM students are worried that if they did not study math how will they do math or if they did not study biology, how will they do math? So for that, there is a detailed video on the SciAstra YouTube channel. 

 

How many marks do you need to get into IISERs?

For the General category, ST, SC, OBC-NCL, PWD category (whatever category you are from), what marks do you need to get? So again a detailed video is available on the SciAstra YouTube channel for each IISER.