IAT 2026: Exam Date, Registration, Eligibility, Syllabus, and More

The IAT 2026 is expected to be held in May 2026. The registration portal for the same will be made available for the students probably from March 2026 to April 2026.

The IAT is a National level entrance examination. Based on the entrance test scores, candidates are offered admission to the Dual & UG programs. The mode of exam is CBT & the medium of instruction is English & Hindi.

This article contains comprehensive details about the IAT exam 2026 and the related components such as key highlights, important events, registration / application, eligibility criteria, syllabus, paper pattern, hall ticket, result, counselling & seat allotment, participating Institutes, and so on.

The IAT full form is the IISER Aptitude Test. The entrance test is held once a year for granting admission to the students in the B.Tech, BS, and BS-MS Dual programs. These courses are offered at various campuses of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER).

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore & Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras also accepts the IISER Aptitude Test scores for admission in the BS (Research) & BS (Medical Sciences & Engineering) programs, respectively.

Aspirants can read this table to know about the important highlights of the IAT 2026:

Students are advised to be informed about the schedule of the entrance test to ensure they complete all the formalities within the specified time.

The details about the major events related to the IAT 2026 are tabulated below:

Candidates who are looking forward to taking the entrance examination should make certain that they satisfy the requisite eligibility conditions stated by the exam conducting body.

The general IAT Eligibility Criteria 2026 is discussed below:

 Note: Aspiring students whose qualifying examination results are yet to be declared can also apply for the entrance exam.

The link for the IAT Registration 2026 will possibly be active from March 2026. The registration link will tentatively close in April 2026. Students who are interested & eligible can apply for the entrance exam via online mode only at ‘iiseradmission.in’.

After finishing the registration, applicants have to fill the application form for IISER Aptitude Test & pay the application fee. The exam fee for the General, EWS, OBC, OBC-NCL categories is Rs. 2000/-, and Rs. 1000/- for the PwD, Persons Registered as Kashmiri Migrants / Kashmiri Pandits / Kashmiri Hindu Families (Non-Migrant), SC, and ST students. Moreover, Foreign Nationals are required to pay Rs. 12,000/- as the test fee.

Applicants should know that the questions of the entrance test paper will be framed according to the curriculum for IISER Aptitude Test. The syllabus for the entrance test is divided into 4 sections. These sections are further segregated into several units, topics, and sub-topics.

The IAT Syllabus 2026 is based on the NCERT curriculum; it contains the following sections:

• Physics
• Chemistry
• Mathematics
• Biology

The IISER (conducting body) will conduct the IISER entrance exam 2026 for a duration of 3 hours via online Computer Based Test (CBT) mode. The entrance test will be held in English & Hindi medium only. Based on the IAT Exam Pattern 2026, the test paper will comprise 4 sections namely, Biology, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics. In every section, 15 MCQs will be asked thus, making a total of 60 questions.

For each of the correct responses, 4 marks will be awarded & -1 negative marking will be done for every incorrect response. However, no deduction in marks will be done for un-attempted questions.

The IAT Admit Card 2026 will be made available for download several days before the exam date. Applicants will be able to download their hall ticket for the entrance test from ‘iiseradmission.in’.

Moreover, students should be informed that it is compulsory to carry the printout of the admit card to the test centre without which entry will not be allowed.

The IAT 2026 will be conducted in numerous cities across India. The applicants will be given the provision to choose 8 preferred IAT Exam Centres 2026 while filling the application form.

*In case the entrance test cannot be held at a particular exam centre due to unavoidable circumstances then, the students will be granted an alternate centre. Information about the same will be communicated to the students in advance.

Practising the IAT Previous Year Question Papers can benefit the students in several ways including improvement in overall performance, increase in confidence, enhancement in time management skills, and the list goes on. Applicants are suggested to rely on the questions asked previously that can additionally help them in preparing the requisite strategies to answer the questions of the IISER Aptitude Test 2026 accurately.

Furthermore, aspiring candidates should consider taking the IAT Mock Test 2026 to analyse their level of preparation for the entrance test. The conducting authority will activate the link for attempting the mock test on the official website a few days before the exam date.

The conducting body will upload the preliminary IAT Answer Key 2026 on ‘iiseradmission.in’ in a few days after the exam is held. Students who have any discrepancies in the answer key will be able to raise objections against the same within the stipulated time. After considering the objections raised, the final answer key of the IISER entrance exam will be released.

Moreover, the IAT Result 2026 will be announced after the declaration of the final answer key. Students can view & download their results in the form of a rank card by navigating ‘iiseradmission.in’.

The conducting authority will prepare the rank list based on the merit marks obtained in the IISER Aptitude Test. The cut-off will be displayed on the official website. There will be no subject-wise cut-off marks released. Furthermore, a category-wise rank list will be prepared for those belonging to the General – EWS / OBC – NCL / SC / ST categories.

After the declaration of the IISER Aptitude Test 2026 result, the conducting authority will open the counselling portal. The qualifying students have to visit the portal & fill-in the counselling form with information regarding the selection of IISERs in the order of preference.

The IAT Counselling Process 2026 will be conducted in many rounds via online mode only. The IAT Seat Allotment 2026 will be done based on the IAT rank obtained by the applicants, their program & IISER preferences, category, and the number of seats available in the current counselling round at each of the IISERs.

The Offer Letter will be issued to the students; they can view the same by logging into the application portal. After this, the candidates are supposed to accept (accept & freeze / accept & float) or reject their seats before the stipulated date. The admission has to be confirmed by the students by paying the Seat Acceptance Fee (SAF) before the deadline.

Furthermore, IAT qualified students who desire to obtain admission at IISc Bangalore / IIT Madras can apply directly on the official website of the desired Institute.

*In case students have not taken the above-mentioned actions within the specified time / have rejected their offer letter then, such applicants will not be taken into consideration for participating in the succeeding counselling rounds.

Note: If the admission seats of the opted IISER are exhausted then in such a case, students who have opted for the same will not be considered for the further rounds of counselling.

Candidates qualifying the IAT 2026 will be eligible for obtaining admission in the Bachelor of Science (BS), B.Tech, and Bachelor of Science (BS) – Master of Science (MS) programs offered in varied specialisations at the participating Institutions.

The IAT Participating Colleges 2026 include the following:

• IISER Berhampur
• IISER Bhopal
• IISER Kolkata
• IISER Mohali
• IISER Pune
• IISER Thiruvananthapuram
• IISER Tirupati
• Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras