MSc Botany Admission Process

Admission to MSc Botany courses in most of the top colleges and universities is entrance based but there are some universities which grant merit based admission also. Admission to MSc Botany courses is usually a four step process which is described below:

• Application for the course:
  • The candidate will need to apply through the website for the course.
  • Most of the universities provide a joint application form for both the entrance exam and the course application.
• Entrance Exam:
  • Entrance exams are compulsory for most of the top universities. A candidate willing to take admission for the MSc Botany course will have to qualify the entrance exam.
  • Two of the top entrance exams are BHU PET, DU Entrance Exam, CUCET, AUCET, and many more.

• Preparation of merit list for counselling:
  • The universities will release a list of successful candidates who will be called for interview and document verification.
  • A candidate must check the university website regularly for any updates in this issue.
• Interview, Document verification and enrollment:
  • This is the final step for the admission process where the selected candidates are called for an interview. The interviewer may or may not ask subject based questions to the candidates, depending on the policies of the institution.
  • During document verification, the candidate is required to present all the original transcripts and other documents essential to establish his eligibility.
  • After the eligibility is proved, he/she is granted admission to the course.

MSc Botany Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility criteria for admission to MSc Botany courses are discussed below:

• A candidate must have a BSc degree with Honours preferably in Botany, Biological sciences or Life sciences, however, Zoology honours students can also apply.
• The candidates should complete graduation with minimum 50% marks, but some very good universities also demand for 55% marks.
• A candidate should come to the course after a minimum of 10+2+3 years of continuous study, with bio-science in 10+2 level.

The other eligibility criteria like age limit and caste-based eligibility criteria vary from University to University. Most of the top universities do not have age limit criteria.

Most of the universities also conduct university and national level entrance tests for offering admission to this MSc Botany course. You need to score good numbers in entrance exams for securing admission in the college of your choice. Cutoff of these entrance exams varies from university to university.

MSc Botany Entrance Exams

Usually the admissions in MSc Botany course are based on entrance exams. There are a number of colleges and universities offering admissions on the basis of entrance exams score. Few of those entrance exams are discussed below:

Details for some of the most important MSc Botany entrance exams are given below:

• BHU-PET:

BHU-PET is a university-level entrance exam conducted by Banaras Hindu University for offering admissions in postgraduate courses. It is an offline exam for 2 hours. Important Dates of this entrance exam are discussed below:

• DU Entrance Test (DUET):

This entrance examination is conducted by Delhi University for admission to master degree courses both in the DU campus and in the colleges under Delhi University which provide master degree courses.

• CUCET:

CUCET is a central university common entrance examination that is only conducted once in a year. It is an offline examination that offers admission to various UG, PG, and research programmes. It is a 2 hour MCQ test consisting of 2 sections only.

• LPU NEST:

Lovely Professional University National Entrance and Scholarship Test (LPU NEST) is conducted twice in a year. It is an online examination offering admission to various B.Tech and UG courses.

• TUEE:

TUEE is a state level examination offering admissions to various UG, and PG courses. To appear for this entrance examination, you must have secured 50% in graduation from a recognised board or university.

How to Prepare for MSc Botany Entrance Exams?

Entrance exams for MSc Botany courses generally have MCQ questions. The number of questions varies from 25 to 50 and the time allotted is around 3 hours.

But, the questions asked are generally not straight questions and a great understanding of Botany needs to be applied to solve them. This demands for practice.

Here are some tips for preparing better for these examinations.

• Increase your hold on topics like genetics and physiology: Botany is believed to be a very hectic subject where there is both logic and theory. To excel in this subject, you need to be equally good in your understanding of concepts and memorizing capability. And there are some topics like Genetics and physiology where both logic and memory are equally important. And consequently, these topics are the most important topics of the subject. So it is advised to go through these topics very carefully and cover as much as you can.
• Revise the plant kingdom again and again: There are many topics in botany, especially in subtopics like plant kingdom, morphology, which needs to be revised on a daily basis otherwise there is a chance that you will forget them eventually. So to avoid such types of accidents, it is better to revise those topics again and again.
• Read the question twice before you start solving: This is one of the most important points which a candidate needs to keep in mind. The questions asked in entrance exams are generally tricky questions so you cannot solve it just by reading it once. You need to read twice or thrice, and think about the concepts which you can apply. Only then you should start solving the question.

How to get admission in a good MSc Botany college?

To get into top MSc colleges a candidate should keep in mind the following points.

• Every University has a minimum percentage requirement of a minimum of 50% and some universities go even higher upto 60-65%. So, it is important to score good marks in graduation.
• The entrance exams for this course contain some tricky questions, and some questions are purely memory based as well. All the basic concepts of a candidate must be crystal clear. So before starting to prepare for these entrance exams, go through the entire syllabus and brush all the concepts properly.
• Solve previous years question paper for at least five years, as you will get a proper idea about the question pattern and the difficulty level of the question paper.