Organisation : Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Entrance Exam : Joint Entrance Screening Test (JEST) 2018
Date of Examination : 18-02-2018
Apply Online : https://www.jest.org.in/application-procedure
Notification : http://www.indianjobtalks.com/uploads/77817-jest.pdf
Home Page : https://www.jest.org.in/

Joint Entrance Screening Test :
Applicants seeking admission for a Ph.D / Integrated Ph.D Programme in Physics or Theoretical Computer Science or Neuroscience or Computational Biology in one of the Participating Institutes may appear for the Joint Entrance Screening Test (JEST) at one of the Exam Centers.

The Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) (statutory body established through an Act of Parliament) recognizes JEST as a National Eligibility Test (NET) in their office Memo vide OM No.SB/S9/Z-01/2015. Fellows working in SERB programmes and qualified in NET are eligible to get enhanced fellowship.

Participating Institutes have their own eligibility criteria. Applicants who are expected to complete their final examinations by August of each year are also eligible to appear for the JEST exam of that year.

Eligibility :
** Please see the websites/advertisements of the participating institutes for their eligibility criteria in details.
** Listed below are tentative eligibility criteria of admission to M.Sc, Ph.D, and Integrated / M.Sc / M.Tech. - Ph.D programs in the participating institutes.

Ph.D. Programme :
Physics :
** M.Sc. in Physics (all participating Institutes).

Additionally, some institutes accept B.E. / B.Tech. / M.Sc. / M.E. / M.Tech. in disciplines of Applied Physics and Mathematics, as listed below.
** M.Sc. in Mathematics / Applied Physics / Applied Mathematics / Optics and Photonics / Instrumentation / Electronics will also be considered at IIA.
** B.E. or B.Tech. will be considered at IISc, IMSc, ICTS-TIFR, IUCAA, JNCASR, NCRA-TIFR, TIFR-TCIS, RRI, IISER Mohali, IISER Pune, IISER Thiruvananthapuram.
** M.Sc. in Physics / Electronics / Astronomy / Applied Mathematics will be cnsidered at IUCAA.
** MSc in Physics, Engineering Physics or Applied Physics will also be considered at IPR.
** M.Sc. in Physics, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, Biophysics or Biochemistry will be considered at SNBNCBS.
** B.Tech Eng. Phys.will be considered at TIFR.
** M.E./ M.Tech in Applied Physics will be considered at NISER.

Theoretical Computer Science at IMSc
** M.Sc./ M.E. / M.Tech. in Computer Science and related disciplines, and should be interested in the mathematical aspects of computer science.

Ph D in Neuroscience at NBRC
** M.Sc (Physics/ Mathematics), B.E/ B.Tech/ M.C.A in Computer Science

Ph D in Computational Biology at IMSc
** M.Sc./ M.E. / M.Tech. / MCA in any engineering or science discipline, with good mathematical skills and strong interest in biological problems.

Integrated M.Sc. / M.Tech - Ph.D Programme (Physics)
** B. Sc. (Physics / Mathematics) will be considered at SNBNCBS.
** B. Sc. (Physics) will be considered at IMSc.
** B.Sc. (Physics / Mathematics) / B.E. / B.Tech. in Electrical / Instrumentation / Engineering Physics / Electronics and Communications / Computer Science and Engineering / Optics and Photonics will be considered in IIA.
** B.Sc (Physics) or B.E./B. Tech in Engineering Physics , with a minimum of first class marks, will be considered at NISER.
** B.Sc. (Physics) will be considered at IISER-Pune, ICTS-TIFR, NCRA-TIFR, and TIFR-TCIS.
** B. Sc. (Physics / Mathematics) / B.E. / B.Tec. will be considered for Integrated M.Sc - PhD at Bose Institute.

Integrated Ph.D Programme in Theoretical Computer Science at IMSc
** B.Sc./B.E./B.Tech./M.C.A. in Computer Science or related disciplines and should be interested in the mathematical aspects of computer science.

Integrated M.Tech - Ph.D. Programme at IIA
** M.Sc. (Physics / Applied Physics) / Post-B.Sc. (Hons) in Optics and Optoelectronics / Radio Physics and Electronics.

Integrated Ph.D. Programme at IISER IISER. Thiruvananthapuram.
** B. Sc. (Physics) or B.E. / B. Tech. in any discipline.

M. Sc. Programme at HRI.
** B. Sc. (Physics) or B.E./B.Tech. degree in any discipline
** HRI is starting a new M.Sc. programme in Physics from 2017. The Integrated Ph.D. programme in Physics at HRI is discontinued from 2017.

Application Procedure :
** Applications for JEST- 2018 can be submitted ON-LINE ONLY.
** Last date of ON-LINE submission of applications is December 16, 2017.
** Before filling the ON-LINE application form, candidate is requested to read the following instructions carefully.

ON-LINE Application :
To apply online, applicants must create an account using a valid email-id. This account will remain valid from the time of account creation till one month after the date of declaration of results, for that year. Email-ids are linked to the created account as well as to the application, and will be used for all communications with the applicants.

Therefore, the email-id should be active and must not be changed during this period. To submit application online, applicants must login to the created account and complete the application form. After submission, an unique submission number will be sent to your email-id. Please save all the emails sent to you and the unique submission number must be quoted by the applicant for any communication with the JEST authority.

The steps for submission of ON-LINE application form are
** Register yourself before you login. It is assumed that you already have an email-id.
** To register, the candidate has to click on the "register to appear for the exam" link in the Homepage. You will receive an email with your account information after registering with a valid email-id. Follow the instructions given in the email for resetting your password and further login.
** Login to the JEST homepage with your username (your email-id) and password. Fill the form and save it, or, modify an already saved form. Press the "Submit Application" button ONLY when you have inserted and checked all the mandatory entries.
** Upload jpg files of your Passport size photo and scanned signature.
** Pay the application fee online using SBI Epay. Please check the FAQ for details of the payment process.
** After ON-LINE submission of the application form and successful e-payment of the application fee, your submission procedure will be considered complete. NO modification will be allowed after this.

E-Photo and E-Signature :
Photo - Signature :
** While filling up the form, you will be asked to upload jpeg files of your passport size photograph and your signature. The size of the individual files should not exceed 50 Kilo bytes. Crop out the extra white portion from the background surrounding the image to retain clarity.

** Before uploading your photo and signature files, make sure you have given it a good name. File names should use alphabets, underscores, and numbers only. Special characters such as spaces, (, #, &, punctuation, etc., should not be used in filenames. If you use a logical naming system, like loginname_date_photo.jpg, loginname_date_sig.jpg then it will be printed without any errors.

** In case the jpeg file of your photo which has been taken with camera exceeds the limit, you should compress the file size using compression softwares available in the websites, such as jpeg-optimizer.com, imageoptimizer.net.
** Your signature can be scanned with a digital scanner, and saved as jpeg file for uploading. In case this file size produced by scanner also exceeds 100 kB limit, you can compress it using the same tools as explained above.
** Please make sure the image type is jpeg. For checking, right click and go to the properties of the file being uploaded.
** Dimension of the image files should be the following, Minimum of 100 X 125 pixels or maximum of 240 x 300 pixels (width x height) for photo and 150 x 30 pixels (width x height) for signature
** Please check ALL the properties of these image files before uploading.

Application Fee :
** An Application Fee of Rs. 300 (Rs 150 for SC/ST, Female applicants ONLY) is required to be paid along with the application which can be paid online using Debit/Credit cards and Net-banking. Payment by any other mode will NOT be accepted. Please check the Available Payment Options and Transaction Charges

** Application Fee is waived for FEMALE applicants belonging to SC/ST. They need not pay the application fee.
** Please go through the refund policy (new tab) before paying the application fee.
** Payment of the fee will imply your agreement to the stated refund policies.

Post-Submission of Application form :
** On successful submission of ON-LINE application form you will receive an E-mail with following information from JEST Website.
Application data after final submission containing Unique Submission Number and filled in data.

Important Dates :
Last date for submitting online applications and payments is December 16, 2017.
JEST 2018 will be held on Sunday, February 18, 2018.

Test Centres :
Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Aligarh, Bengaluru, Bardhaman, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Indore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Kolkata, Kochi, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nainital, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Roorkee, Sambalpur, Silchar, Siliguri, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur, and Visakhapatnam.