The National Common Entrance Test (NCET) 2026 will be held for admissions to the 4-year Integrated Teacher Education Programmes (ITEPs). The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the exam for ITEP courses offered at 77 institutes, including IITs, NITs, RIEs, and government colleges.
The NCET 2026 registration/application form is likely to be released in the fourth week of February 2026 at exams.nta.ac.in/NCET. Candidates interested in pursuing an Integrated Teacher Education Programme at one of the NCET participating universities/institutes can check all about the exam on this SciAstra page. It provides details about the NCET 2026 exam date, application process, eligibility to apply for it, exam pattern, syllabus, and other important steps related to the admission process of NCET 2026.
What is NCET 2026?
The National Common Entrance Test (NCET) is a national-level entrance exam conducted by NTA for admission to 4-year Integrated Teacher Education Programmes (ITEP) offered by 77 NCET participating institutes. These institutes include 4 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 6 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 5 Regional Institutes of Education (RIEs), and 65 government colleges.
Check out the region-wise NCET 2026 participating institutes below:
Regional Committee | Number of Recognised NCET 2026 Participating Institutes/Universities |
| 25 |
| 25 |
| 14 |
| 13 |
Total | 77 |
NCET 2026 Highlights
To find an overview of all the important details related to the NCET 2026, check out the following exam highlights:
Particulars | Details |
Exam Name | National Common Entrance Test (NCET) |
Conducting Body | National Testing Agency (NTA) |
Exam Level | National |
Frequency | Once a year |
Mode of Exam | Online (Computer-Based Test) |
Duration | 3 hours (180 minutes) |
Question Type | Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) |
Languages | 13 languages (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu) |
Official Website |
NCET 2026 Dates
All the important dates related to the NCET 2026 are mentioned below:
Exam Events | Exam Date (Tentative) |
NCET 2026 Notification | Fourth week of February 2026 |
|---|---|
NCET 2026 Registration Date | Fourth week of February 2026 |
NCET 2026 Admit Card | Fourth week of April 2026 |
NCET 2026 Exam Date | Fourth week of April 2026 |
NCET 2026 Provisional Answer Key | Third week of May 2026 |
NCET 2026 Final Answer Key | Second week of June 2026 |
NCET 2026 Result | Third week of June 2026 |
NCET Eligibility Criteria 2026
To fill out the NCET 2026 application form, candidates are required to meet the NCET 2026 eligibility criteria mentioned as follows:
Eligibility Criteria | Details |
Age Limit | There is no age limit for the candidates. The candidates who have passed the class 12 /equivalent examination or are appearing in 2025, irrespective of their age, can appear in the NCET 2025 examination. Note: The candidates will be required to fulfil the age criteria (if any) of the Participating Universities.. |
Educational Qualifications |
|
NCET Application Form 2026
If you meet the NCET eligibility criteria, you can apply for the exam. The eligibility requirements are listed as follows:
Visit the official NCET website: exams.nta.ac.in/NCET.
Register for the exam by entering personal and qualification details and an address for communication.
Create a password.
Log in by using the provided registration number and created password.
Fill out the application form.
Upload a passport-size photo and a scanned copy of your signature.
Pay the application fee to complete the application process.
SciAstra NCET 2026 Mock Test Series Launched
SciAstra is providing the NCET 2026 mock test to help the candidates with their exam preparation to get admissions in the top-most participating institutes.
Candidates will be getting the NCET 2026 PCMB/PCB mock test to enhance their exam preparation:
NCET 2026 Test Series- PCB
NCET 2026 Test Series- PCB
To help candidates prepare effectively for the exam and cover every topic from the units mentioned in the syllabus, the newly launched SciAstra FOCUS NCET Test Series will provide the following coverage:
5 Part Tests
2 Half Tests
8 Full-length Tests
NCET Exam Pattern 2026
As per the NCET 2026 exam pattern, the exam will be conducted online in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode at test centres across India. The du
The complete details about the exam pattern are available as follows: ration of the exam will be 3 hours, and the question paper for all subjects will contain MCQs.
NCET Exam Sections and Question Distribution 2025
Candidates can check out the NCET 2026 section-wise exam pattern and distribution from here:
Section | Subjects / Tests | Questions to be Attempted | Compulsory / Optional |
Section 1 – Languages | There are 38 different languages available in this section. Candidates must choose any two languages (Language 1 and Language 2).
| 20 questions per language paper (Total 40) | Optional (Choose any 2 languages) |
Section 2 – Domain-Specific Subjects | A total of 26 Domain-Specific Subjects are offered under this section. Candidates may choose any three subjects as per the eligibility and requirements of the respective University/Institution.
| 25 questions per subject (Total 75) | Optional (Choose any 3 subjects) |
Section 3 – General Test | This is a mandatory section for all candidates.
| 25 questions | Compulsory |
Section 4 – Teaching Aptitude | This is also a mandatory section.
| 20 questions | Compulsory |
Candidates need to select the language option for the Question Paper while filling up the Application Form, and it must be noted that once the choice is fixed, it cannot be changed at a later stage. The correctness of the questions in all the question papers, the English version will be taken as the final.
NCET Exam Pattern: Section-wise
All questions in the NCET 2026 exam will be Objective Type Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs). The detailed paper pattern is as follows:
Test Paper | Total Questions | Questions to be Attempted | To be Chosen From |
Language 1 | 23 | 20 | To be chosen from Section 1 (38 languages) |
Language 2 | 23 | 20 | Other than Language 1 in Section 1 |
Teaching Aptitude | 23 | 20 | Compulsory |
General Test | 28 | 25 | Compulsory |
Domain-Specific Subject 1 | 28 | 25 | To be chosen from Section 2 (26 Domain-Specific Subjects) |
Domain-Specific Subject 2 | 28 | 25 | Other than Domain-Specific Subject 1 from Section 2 |
Domain-Specific Subject 3 | 28 | 25 | Other than Domain-Specific Subjects 1 and 2 from Section 2 |
Total Questions | 181 | 160 |
NCET Syllabus 2026
Candidates must select subjects for NCET 2026 according to the official exam pattern, which includes four main sections: Language Proficiency, Domain-Specific Subjects, Teaching Aptitude, and General Test.
The Language Proficiency section evaluates candidates through Reading Comprehension, Literary Aptitude, and Vocabulary.
The domain subjects syllabus is based on the respective Class 12 curriculum of the chosen subjects. The General Test covers topics such as General Knowledge, Current Affairs, General Mental Ability, Numerical Ability, Quantitative Reasoning, and Logical and Analytical Reasoning.
The Teaching Aptitude section includes topics related to teaching methodologies across various disciplines like Science, Arts, Mathematics, and Performing Arts.
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NCET Admit Card 2026
The admit card or hall ticket for NCET 2026 will tentatively be released on the official NCET exam website in the fourth week of April 2026. Candidates will not be allowed to appear for the exam if they do not carry a coloured printed copy of the admit card to the exam centre, and they should also bring an extra copy as backup.
The steps to download the NCET 2026 admit card are as follows:
Visit the official NCET website: exams.nta.ac.in/NCET.
Click on the “Admit Card” link.
Log in by using the provided registration number and password created at the time of registration.
Your admit card will appear on the screen.
Click on the download button to save the admit card as a PDF.
NCET Result 2026
The performance of candidates will be evaluated as per the NCET 2026 final answer. Thereafter, the exam result will be released. NTA will release the result of the NCET 2026 exam in the third week of June 2026 (tentative) at exams.nta.ac.in/NCET.
Candidates can use the following steps:
Visit the official NCET website: exams.nta.ac.in/NCET.
Click on the “Result” link.
Log in by using the provided registration number and password created at the time of registration.
Your result will appear on the screen.
NCET Counselling 2026
NTA does not conduct counselling for admissions to colleges based on NCET scores. To get admission to an NCET 2026 participating institute, candidates will have to register for the counselling process conducted by the respective institutions. The registration will be followed by the steps listed below:
Submission and verification of educational documents and ID proofs
Release of rank list mentioning the names of selected candidates
Pay admission fee to secure the allotted seat