India is home to a host of prestigious educational institutions, both private and public, that provide quality education to undergraduate students. To ensure that the best and the brightest of the country are sufficiently skilled to work in the different sectors of the economy, there are a number of entrance exams after 12th that are held every year. In order to gain admission to a reputed institute, students must sit for entrance examinations that make them eligible for admission.
Read on to know all about the popular competitive exams after 12th that are conducted at the national and state levels for admission to undergraduate programs in the top universities in India.
Exam Category | Exam Name | Eligibility |
Engineering | JEE Main | Class 12th (PCM) |
JEE Advanced | Clear JEE Main | |
BITSAT | Class 12 (PCM) | |
VITEEE | Class 12 (PCM/B) | |
Other Important Engineering Exams | Class 12 (PCM) | |
Medical | NEET | Class 12 (PCB) |
Law | CLAT | Class 12 or equivalent. |
AILET | ||
LSAT | ||
Other Important Law Competitive Exams | ||
Defense | NDA and NA | Class 12 or equivalent. |
Indian Army TES | ||
IMU CET | ||
Agriculture | ICAR AIEEA | Class 12 or equivalent with Science. |
Other Agriculture Science Competitive Exams | ||
Fashion & Design | NIFT Entrance Exam | Class 12 or equivalent. |
AIEED | Class 12 or equivalent; candidates appearing for Class 11 exams are also eligible. | |
NID DAT | Class 12 or equivalent. | |
UCEED | Class 12 or equivalent. | |
A Few Other Government Competitive Exams After 12th |
| Class 12 or equivalent. |
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Engineering aspirants should target the following entrance exams after 12th.
Joint Entrance Examination Main is the most popular entrance examination to gain admission to BE/BTech, BArch, and BPlanning programs. This competitive exam after 12th is conducted by the National Testing Agency to gain admission to IIITs, NITs, SPAs, and Govt. Funded Technical Institutes such as IIST. Qualifying the JEE Main also makes you eligible to sit for JEE Advanced.
Eligibility - Class 12 (PCM) with a minimum of 75% marks.
Read on to know more about competitive exams after class 12.
JEE Advanced is the second leg of the JEE examination. It is conducted by the IITs for students aspiring to gain admission to undergraduate science and engineering programs at all the participating IITs, as well as other universities such as the IISERs, IIST, IISc, etc. that use it as the basis for admission. JEE Advanced scores are also used for admission to foreign universities such as the National University of Singapore.
Eligibility - Clear JEE Main and be among the top 2,50,000 candidates.
Conducted by the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, The BITS Admission Test is amongst the most popular entrance exams after 12th Science. Its purpose is to screen students who aspire to gain admission to the Engineering, Pharmacy, and Information Systems programs at BITS Pilani, BITS Goa, and BITS Hyderabad.
Eligibility - Class 12 (PCM) with a minimum of 75% marks.
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Vellore Institute of Technology Engineering Entrance Test (VITEEE) is an important competitive exam after 12th for students who are looking to gain admission to various undergraduate degrees offered by the 4 VITs across India.
Eligibility - Class 12 (PCM/B) with a minimum of 60% marks.
Few of the entrance exams after 12th that medical aspirants may attempt are the following.
Conducted by the National Testing Agency, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is the single national level undergraduate medical entrance test to gain admission to MBBS/BDS programs in all medical colleges across India, including AIIMS and JIPMER.
Eligibility - Class 12 (PCB) with a minimum of 50% marks.
Read further to know more about competitive exams after class 12.
Following is the list of entrance exams after 12th for law aspirants.
Common Law Admission Test is a national level entrance exam after 12th, carried out for admissions to 3-year and 5-year integrated law programmes such as BA LLB (Hons), BBA LLB (Hons), etc. Conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, qualifying students can gain admission to the 22 participating National Law Universities.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with a minimum of 45% marks.
Exam Mode - Pen and Paper
All India Law Entrance Test is conducted by the National Law University of Delhi, the only NLU in India that is not a part of the CLAT Consortium. As such, students who want to gain admission to NLU Delhi have to sit for AILET in order to gain admission to its undergraduate law programmes.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with a minimum of 45% marks.
Exam Mode - Pen and Paper
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Conducted internationally by the Law School Admission Council, Law School Admission Test is an internationally conducted examination to screen law aspirants students looking to gain admission to 3-year and integrated 5-year undergraduate law programs in both Indian universities and universities abroad.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with a minimum of 45% marks.
Other Important Law Competitive Exams After 12th
Some of the entrance exams after 12th for aspirants of Defense and merchant navy are as follows.
Conducted by UPSC, the National Defence Academy & Naval Academy (NDA & NA) exam is a government competitive exam after 12th science or any other stream for students who wish to pursue a career in the Defence services, including the Army, Navy, and the Air Force. The exam is held twice a year - NDA I and NDA II.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent.
Technical Entry Scheme (TES) is a national-level government competitive exam after 12th science conducted by the technical branch of the Indian Army. The purpose of this entrance exam after 12th is to screen applicants for the Permanent Commission in the technical division of the Indian Army where they’ll be given an engineering degree. This govt. exam after class 12 is held twice a year.
Eligibility - Class 12 (PCM) or equivalent with a minimum of 70% marks.
The Indian Maritime University Common Entrance Test or IMU CET is one of the national level entrance exams for 12th science students who want to pursue BTech and BSc courses in Marine Engineering, Naval Architecture, Ship Building, etc. at Indian Maritime University. Many other colleges also accept students based on their IMU CET scores such as Coimbatore Marine College, Tolani Maritime Institute, IMI Greater Noida, etc.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with Science (PCM) with a minimum of 60% marks, and 50% marks in English
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Students who want to pursue a career in the Agricultural Sciences may target the following entrance exams after 12th.
ICAR All India Entrance Examination for Admission is conducted by the NTA for admission to agricultural and allied sciences programs in participating colleges. Applicants will have to sit for AIEEA UG, which is an important entrance exam after 12th Science for BSc, BTech, and BFSc agriculture courses.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with Science with a minimum of 50% marks.
Fashion and Design must target the following list of entrances exams after 12th.
National Institute of Fashion Technology conducts the NIFT Entrance Exam for admission to its undergraduate design-related programs. Candidates applying for the BDes program will have to appear for the General Ability Test (GAT) and Creative Ability Test (CAT) as well, while BFTech candidates will have to sit for the GAT. Apart from NIFT institutes, other colleges such as Vishwakarma University and the World University of Design also admit students based on their scores on the NIFT entrance exam.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent with a minimum of 50% marks.
All India Entrance Examination for Design (AIEED) is a national-level exam conducted by the ARCH Academy of Design. The purpose of the exam is to screen candidates looking to pursue the undergraduate design-related courses offered by the university at its Delhi and Jaipur campuses. This entrance exam after 12th involves the General Ability Test (GAT) and Creative Ability Test (CAT) and a final personal interview stage that screens students for their aesthetic and creative sensibilities to learn and work in the fashion and design industry.
Eligibility - Pass Class 12 or equivalent; candidates appearing for Class 11 exams are also eligible.
The National Institute of Design conducts the NID Design Aptitude Test for candidates that want to gain admission to BDes programs at NID campuses. This entrance exam after 12th involves NID DAT (Prelims), which is a written design aptitude test. Those that make it to the merit list will then have to appear for NID DAT (Mains), which involves a studio test and a personal interview.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent.
Undergraduate Common Entrance Examination for Design is conducted by IIT Bombay for candidates that want to pursue BDes programs at IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, and IIITDM Jabalpur. This entrance exam after 12th involves an online written test, and then an offline drawing test for those that clear the first round.
Eligibility - Class 12 or equivalent.
Besides the exams for public and private institutes mentioned above, there are some other popular government competitive exams after 12th that students can sit for. These are as follows:
Railways Recruitment Exams
RRB ALP
SSC Exams
SSC CHSL
SSC Stenographer
The list of entrance exams after 12th provided above are some of the most popular entrance exams for students looking to gain admission into a variety of programs all across India. It is not an exhaustive list and there are various other state-level and university-specific exams that are not mentioned above.
Application Date:15 October,2024 - 15 January,2025
Application Date:11 November,2024 - 08 April,2025