ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 closed with results on 29 August 2026, so preparation now targets the 2027 cycle: the exam pattern, our section-wise blueprint, and the guessing arithmetic that holds.
ICAR AIEEA (PG) is the All India Entrance Examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on behalf of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, for admission to master's degree programmes in agriculture and allied sciences at participating Agricultural Universities. It fills the ICAR-quota postgraduate seats at those universities through a single All-India merit rank, with no interview at the exam stage.
Be clear about the timeline before you plan anything: as of September 2026 the 2026 cycle is finished. The paper was held on 4 July 2026 and the results were declared on 29 August 2026. If you are starting preparation now, you are preparing for the 2027 cycle, and the pattern below is the one that cycle is expected to carry. If you are still at the bachelor's stage, our CUET (ICAR-UG) agriculture admission guide covers the undergraduate route into the same university system.
The next ICAR AIEEA PG exam is the 2027 cycle, and as of September 2026 it has not been notified. Reading forward from the 2026 calendar, the notification is expected around May 2027, with the exam in the following summer. That is an expectation from the previous cycle's dates, not an announced date, so confirm everything against the NTA and ICAR information bulletin when it appears.
| Milestone | ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 (completed) |
|---|---|
| Application window | 8 May to 7 June 2026, extended to 10 June 2026 |
| Exam date | 4 July 2026, morning shift, 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon |
| Provisional answer key | 16 August 2026 |
| Result declared | 29 August 2026 |
| Next cycle | 2027, for the 2027-28 admission year |
| Next notification (expected) | Around May 2027, on the 2026 timeline |
ICAR AIEEA PG is a computer-based test of 120 multiple-choice questions in 120 minutes. A correct answer earns 4 marks, a wrong answer loses 1 mark and an unattempted question scores 0, for a maximum of 480 marks. The paper is set in English, and the whole paper comes from the single subject group you applied for. Confirm the language options in the NTA information bulletin before you apply. The 2026 cycle carried this pattern unchanged.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Mode | Computer-based test (CBT), online |
| Total questions | 120 MCQs |
| Marks per correct answer | +4 |
| Negative marking | -1 per wrong answer |
| Unattempted question | 0 |
| Total marks | 480 (120 x 4) |
| Duration | 120 minutes (2 hours) |
| Medium | English |
| Structure | One chosen subject group; the whole paper is that group's content |
One composite timer, no per-section lockout: you can move anywhere in the paper for the full 120 minutes. A first pass over your strongest sections, then a second pass over the rest, protects your certain marks before the clock pressure builds.
You apply for exactly one of about twenty PG subject groups, and your entire score comes from it. Pick the group that matches both your bachelor's degree and the master's specialisation you want, then confirm that your target universities accept that group for that programme. Subject depth matters more than where the competition looks softer.
The groups run from Plant Sciences, Agronomy and Horticulture to Social Sciences, Statistical Sciences, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Sciences, Veterinary Science, Fisheries Science, Dairy Science, Food Science and Technology and Agri-Business Management. Our ICAR AIEEA PG exam hub lists the groups we cover with full question banks: Plant Sciences, Horticulture, Social Sciences and Agri-Business Management.
Beyond the agriculture band its Agri-Business Management bulletin guarantees, ICAR publishes no official per-section question count for AIEEA PG. The four tables below are our own planned distribution, taken from our ICAR AIEEA PG syllabus reference: sections kept roughly equal, nudged by discipline emphasis, and summing to 120 questions. Use them to allocate revision time in practice. They are our blueprint, not an official ICAR weightage.
| Section | Questions (our blueprint) |
|---|---|
| Agronomy | 28 |
| Genetics and Plant Breeding | 24 |
| Plant Physiology | 20 |
| Soil Science | 20 |
| Plant Protection | 16 |
| General Agriculture | 12 |
| Total | 120 |
| Section | Questions (our blueprint) |
|---|---|
| Fruit Science (Pomology) | 26 |
| Vegetable Science (Olericulture) | 24 |
| Floriculture and Landscaping | 18 |
| Plantation, Spices, Medicinal and Aromatic Crops | 18 |
| Post-Harvest Technology and Processing | 16 |
| Basic Horticulture and Allied | 18 |
| Total | 120 |
| Section | Questions (our blueprint) |
|---|---|
| Agricultural Economics | 32 |
| Farm Management and Agricultural Finance | 24 |
| Agricultural Extension Education | 28 |
| Rural Sociology and Development | 16 |
| General Agriculture | 20 |
| Total | 120 |
| Section | Questions (our blueprint) |
|---|---|
| Agricultural and Managerial Economics | 22 |
| Agri-Marketing and Trade | 20 |
| Agri-Finance, Cooperation and Banking | 18 |
| Farm and Production Management | 16 |
| General Management and Business Environment | 18 |
| Quantitative Aptitude and Statistics | 14 |
| General Agriculture | 12 |
| Total | 120 |
Read the Agri-Business Management table carefully. The official ICAR information bulletin for the Agri-Business Management group guarantees that around 20 percent to 25 percent of the paper is drawn from agriculture and agriculture-related science subjects, including recent developments, which is about 24 to 30 of the 120 questions. Our blueprint meets that band, it just splits the ground across two sections instead of one. General Agriculture carries 12 questions and Farm and Production Management a further 16, together 28 of 120, or about 23 percent. So do not read the 12 question General Agriculture row as the whole of your agriculture load in this group. General agriculture is also the one pool shared by Plant Sciences, Social Sciences and Agri-Business Management, which makes it the highest-leverage revision block in any of those three groups.
Work through your chosen group section by section, in the order of the weightage table above, using standard ICAR e-course material and your bachelor's textbooks. The specialised sections are where ranks are made; general agriculture is where they are saved.
Get the arithmetic right before you build a strategy on it. At 4 marks for a correct answer and 1 mark off for a wrong one, a purely random guess among 4 options is worth 0.25 x 4 minus 0.75 x 1, which is plus 0.25 marks: very slightly positive, not negative. Eliminating options raises that number rather than bringing it towards zero.
So the scheme does not punish guessing on average; it punishes noisy guessing. The variance is brutal when every question swings 4 marks, and a bad run across 20 blind guesses moves your score far more than that tiny positive expectation does. The discipline that pays is elimination: rule out 2 options and a guess between the rest is worth 0.5 x 4 minus 0.5 x 1, which is plus 1.5 marks, six times the blind-guess expectation. Attempt freely where you can cut the field to 2 options, be sparing where you cannot, and read every option before committing, because a careless error costs 5 marks against the answer you could have had.
Give yourself eight to twelve weeks of focused preparation: the first third revising your bachelor's core in the chosen group, section by section, from ICAR e-course notes and standard textbooks; the middle weeks on daily topic practice and sectional tests; the last weeks on full-length papers under the real clock.
A workable week: two sections revised, one sectional test per section, one full-length mock at the weekend and one session spent only on analysing it. The sections where you leak marks in week 4 are exactly where week 5 goes. In the final fortnight, stop learning new topics and rotate revision, mocks and error-log review.
Take at least twelve to fifteen full-length 120-question mocks in your chosen group, plus sectional tests for your weakest sub-disciplines. Mocks train the composite single-timer discipline, expose recall gaps that reading hides, and calibrate how hard you can push without bleeding negative marks.
The Quiz4Exam ICAR AIEEA PG series carries a free starter mock, full-length mocks, PYQ-pattern mocks and sectional tests for every sub-discipline across Plant Sciences, Horticulture, Social Sciences and Agri-Business Management. Our full-bank audit of this question bank measured a true defect rate of 0.087 percent, the cleanest of any exam we have built, and our live scoring check on the Plant Sciences starter mock landed exactly on 220 of 480: 60 correct answers at 4 marks each, minus 20 wrong answers at 1 mark each. Start with the free ICAR AIEEA PG mock tests and treat your first score as the baseline everything else is measured against.
As of September 2026 the 2026 cycle is done and the 2027 notification is expected around May 2027, which makes this the quiet stretch where a group-specific base actually gets built. Pick the one subject group that fits your degree and target programme, because the entire 480-mark paper comes from it. Revise in the weightage order above, remember that the official bulletin guarantees 20 percent to 25 percent of the Agri-Business Management paper on agriculture and agriculture-related science, about 24 to 30 of its 120 questions, guess only after eliminating options, and finish with full-length timed mocks.
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The 2026 cycle is over: the paper was held on 4 July 2026 in the morning shift, 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon, the provisional answer key came on 16 August 2026 and results were declared on 29 August 2026. The next exam is the 2027 cycle. As of September 2026 it is not notified; reading forward from the 2026 calendar, expect the notification around May 2027.
The paper carries 120 multiple-choice questions to be answered in 120 minutes. A correct answer earns 4 marks, a wrong answer loses 1 mark and an unattempted question scores 0, giving a maximum of 480 marks. It is a computer-based test set in English, with a single composite timer and no per-section lockout.
At plus 4 for a correct answer and minus 1 for a wrong one, a random guess among 4 options has an expected value of plus 0.25 marks, so it is very slightly positive, not negative. The variance is what hurts, since every question swings 4 marks. Eliminate 2 options first: a guess between the remaining 2 is worth plus 1.5 marks on average.
No. You apply for and attempt exactly one subject group, chosen to match your bachelor's specialisation, and the entire 120-question paper is drawn from that group's graduate-level syllabus. There are about twenty groups, so confirm before applying that your target universities accept the group you pick for the master's programme you want.
ICAR publishes no official per-section question count, though for the Agri-Business Management group its bulletin does guarantee that around 20 percent to 25 percent of the paper comes from agriculture and agriculture-related science subjects, about 24 to 30 of its 120 questions. Our own blueprint, which our question bank and mocks follow, splits each 120-question paper by section. For Plant Sciences that is Agronomy 28, Genetics and Plant Breeding 24, Plant Physiology 20, Soil Science 20, Plant Protection 16 and General Agriculture 12. Treat it as a practice guide, not an official ICAR distribution.
