Hello,

Below I will explain both IIT JAM and JEST in detail.

IIT JAM

Joint Admission Test for MSc programmes or JAM is a national level entrance examination for admission to MSc and other post-graduate science programs. From the Academic Session 2004-05, IITs started conducting a Joint Admission test for M.Sc. (JAM). The objective of JAM is to provide admissions to M.Sc. (Two Years), Joint M.Sc.-Ph.D., M.Sc.-Ph.D. Dual Degree, and other Post-Bachelor Degree Programmes at the IITs and Integrated Ph.D. Degree Programmes at the IISc.

The examination is held once a year and is an ONLINE Computer Based Test (CBT)

The exam duration is of Three hours.

JAM 2021 Examination will be conducted in seven subjects, also referred to as Test Papers; Biotechnology (BT), Chemistry (CY), Economics (EN), Geology (GG), Mathematics (MA), Mathematical Statistics (MS) and Physics (PH).

For all the seven test papers, the duration of the examination will be 3 hours. The medium for all the test papers will be English only. There will be a total of 60 questions carrying a total of 100 marks. The entire paper will be divided into three compulsory sections, A(a total of 30 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) involving 10 questions of one mark each and 20 questions of two marks each),   B (contains a total of 10 Multiple Select Questions (MSQ) carrying two marks each)  and C (contains a total of 20 Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions involving 10 questions of one mark each and 10 questions of two marks each).

Negative Markings are there only for MCQ type questions.  For each wrong answer to 1 mark questions, 1/3 mark will be deducted, and similarly, for each wrong answer to 2 marks questions, 2/3 mark will be deducted.

online virtual calculator can be used

The eligibility criteria for JAM are as follows

• All candidates admitted through JAM should have a Bachelor’s degree.

• In the qualifying degree, the aggregate marks or CGPA/CPI without rounding-off (taking into account all subjects, including languages and subsidiaries, all years combined) should be at least 55% or 5.5 out of 10 for General/OBC (NCL)/EWS category candidates, and 50% or 5.0 out of 10 for SC/ST and PwD category candidates.

• Foreign nationals with Indian degree are eligible to apply, subject to the admitting institute’s policy.

There is no age restriction.

The candidates who have either appeared or are due to appear in the final examination of their qualifying degree in 2021 are also eligible to appear in JAM 2021

On the basis of performance in JAM 2021, for each test paper, separate merit lists will be prepared for General (GEN), OBC Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL), Economically Weaker Section (EWS), SC, ST, and Persons with Disability (PwD) category candidates.

Admission to most of the Academic Programmes at various institutes will be made on the basis of Rank in JAM 2021

For more information on JAM please refer :

https://jam.iisc.ac.in/uploads/JAM_Brochure_23Sep_2020.pdf

JEST

Joint Entrance Screening Test  or JEST, is a screening test for admission to PhD and Int. PhD programme of different participating institutes (see the list from JEST home page: https://www.jest.org.in/joint-entrance-screening-test?q=participating-institutes ) in physics and theorertical computer science / neuroscience. The JEST examination is conducted for two subjects only, namely, physics and theoretical computer science.  However, the qualifications for admission to the PhD and Int. PhD programme in various participating institutes are different. So the candidate is requested to visit the websites of the participating institutes of their interest to know more about the qualification requirement.

There is no restriction on age for appearing in JEST examination. However, each participating institute has its own eligibility criteria. For details on the eligibility criteria of the participating institutes candidates are advised to visit their websites.

Please refer the below link for the eligibility criteria: https://www.jest.org.in/eligibility

The examination is conducted in the Offline mode and in English.

There are a total of 50 Objective Type multiple choice questions divided into three parts -Part A - 15 Questions, Part B - 10 Questions, Part C - 25 Questions. The duration of the exam is 180 minutes.

The marking scheme is as follows:

• Part A –  3 marks will be rewarded for the correct answer and -1 for each incorrect answer.

• Part B – 3 marks will be rewarded for the correct answer and No negative marking.

• Part C – 1 marks will be rewarded for the correct answer and -1/3 for each incorrect answer.

Good Luck