NEST 2026 Cutoff Analysis: Category-Wise Qualifying Score Trends 2023–2025

NEST cutoff comprises two thresholds you must clear together — the Minimum Admissible Percentile (MAP) and the Section-wise Minimum Admissible Score (SMAS) — and data from 2023 to 2025 shows MAP has held firm at 95th percentile for General/EWS students, 90th for OBC-NCL, and 75th for SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK candidates every year.

The National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) admits students to 5-year Integrated M.Sc. programmes at NISER Bhubaneswar (200 seats) and UM-DAE CEBS Mumbai (57 seats). The exam carries 180 marks in total — Section 1 (General Aptitude, 30 marks) plus the best three of four subject sections (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, 50 marks each). Knowing how MAP and SMAS have moved across categories from 2023 to 2025 helps you set a realistic preparation target for NEST 2026, whose result is due on 20 June 2026.

• NEST 2025 MAP: General/EWS — 95th percentile; OBC-NCL — 90th; SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK — 75th.
• SMAS = 20% of the average score of the top 100 candidates in each subject section; it is recalculated after every exam cycle.
• OBC-NCL SMAS = 90% of General SMAS; SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK SMAS = 50% of General SMAS — these ratios are policy-fixed.
• UM-DAE CEBS 2025 total-score cutoff: General — 23, OBC-NCL — 15, SC — 9, ST — 4.
• NEST 2026 result with official cutoff release is expected on 20 June 2026 at nestexam.in.

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How NEST Cutoff Works: MAP and SMAS Explained

NEST qualification applies two independent filters simultaneously — clearing one without the other disqualifies you.

• MAP (Minimum Admissible Percentile): Your overall NEST percentile must meet or exceed the category threshold. MAP is a relative measure — it describes where you rank within all test-takers in that cycle, not a fixed raw score.
• SMAS (Section-wise Minimum Admissible Score): Your raw score in each subject section must clear the section-level cutoff. SMAS equals 20% of the average score of the top 100 candidates in that section for that year. You must clear SMAS in at least three of the four subject sections. Because SMAS depends on how the top performers score in each sitting, it shifts every year.

A student who clears the 95th percentile overall but misses SMAS in two subject sections does not qualify. Equally, clearing SMAS in all sections but falling below MAP also means disqualification. Both filters must be satisfied independently.

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NEST Category-Wise MAP Trends: 2023 to 2025

The MAP has been identical across all three years for every category, indicating that the conducting body has maintained a fixed relative qualifying bar regardless of annual difficulty variation or applicant volume.

The MAP’s stability is structurally different from engineering entrance exams where raw cutoff scores shift with paper difficulty. For NEST, a pre-set percentile ensures a consistent proportion of the cohort advances to merit consideration each year. However, the raw score needed to hit the 95th percentile varies — a harder paper lowers the absolute score at that percentile, while an easier one raises it. Students should focus on rank rather than chasing a fixed marks target.

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NEST Subject-Wise SMAS Trends by Category

Unlike MAP, SMAS is freshly computed after each exam and directly reflects that year’s cohort strength. The table below shows NEST 2025 subject-wise SMAS by category — the most recent confirmed cycle. OBC-NCL SMAS = 90% of General; SC/ST SMAS = 50% of General, consistent across all years.

Key observations from 2023–2025 SMAS trends:

• Biology consistently records the highest SMAS across all categories because it attracts a large pool of high-scoring students preparing for biology-focused Integrated M.Sc. programmes at NISER.
• Physics and Mathematics carry the lowest SMAS in absolute terms — these sections are harder and the top-100 averages are smaller, which means 20% of that average sets a lower threshold.
• The OBC-NCL and SC/ST SMAS ratios (90% and 50% of General respectively) are applied uniformly and have not changed between 2023 and 2025.
• Year-on-year movement of 0.5–1.0 marks per section is typical; no dramatic jumps have occurred across this period.

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UM-DAE CEBS Cutoff Trend: 2023 to 2025

UM-DAE CEBS publishes a separate total-score-based cutoff (minimum NEST total out of 180 for seat allotment) for its 57 seats in Mumbai. These values are lower than NISER’s effective closing scores because of CEBS’s smaller seat matrix and distinct demand profile. CEBS 2025 cutoffs are official; 2023 and 2024 values below are approximate based on reported trend data.

The CEBS total-score cutoff has shown a gradual upward trend across all categories from 2023 to 2025. General category scores moved from approximately 20 to 23 over three years. This reflects a slowly growing and more competitive applicant pool at CEBS, even though the absolute numbers remain modest compared to NISER. Students targeting CEBS specifically should note that clearing MAP and SMAS is the first gate — the final allotment cutoff depends on rank and seat availability in each counselling round.

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Expected NEST 2026 Cutoff

Based on the three-year stability of MAP, NEST 2026 MAP is expected to remain at 95th percentile for General/EWS, 90th for OBC-NCL, and 75th for SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK. Any revision to MAP would require a formal policy change that the exam board has not indicated. The figures below are expected values based on 2023–2025 trends and are not confirmed.

Expected NEST 2026 SMAS values by subject will follow the 2025 pattern closely. Biology and Chemistry SMAS for General/EWS students are expected in the 8–10 mark range; Mathematics and Physics SMAS are expected in the 5.5–7.5 range. For OBC-NCL, apply 90% of those estimates; for SC/ST/Divyangjan/JK, apply 50%. These projections are based on 2023–2025 trends and will be revised once official NEST 2026 section averages are published alongside the result on nestexam.in on 20 June 2026.