ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 Safe Score for Agriculture Stream at IARI New Delhi

A safe score of 260–280 out of 480 is expected to give General category students a strong chance of admission to IARI New Delhi’s Agriculture stream in ICAR AIEEA PG 2026.

ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 is scheduled for July 2, 2026, and is conducted by NTA for admission to M.Sc. programmes at IARI New Delhi and other ICAR Deemed Universities. IARI New Delhi is the most sought-after institution in the Agriculture stream, with consistently high cutoffs due to limited seats and intense competition from students across the country. Knowing the expected safe score before the exam helps you set a realistic target and evaluate your chances after the result is declared.

• ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 is out of a total of 480 marks (120 questions × 4 marks each, with –1 for wrong answers).
• Based on previous year trends, a score of 260–280 out of 480 is considered safe for General category students targeting IARI New Delhi Agriculture seats.
• OBC and EWS students should target a safe score of 230–250 marks for IARI New Delhi Agriculture stream.
• SC students should aim for 195–215 marks and ST students for 160–180 marks to remain competitive for IARI New Delhi seats.
• After July 2, 2026, NTA will release the answer key and result on exams.nta.nic.in/icar/, where students can verify their scores.

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ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 Exam Pattern and Total Marks

The safe score threshold is directly tied to the exam structure. ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 is a Computer-Based Test with the following marking scheme:

The Agriculture stream paper covers Section A (General Agriculture) and subject-specific sections in disciplines such as Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding and Genetics, and Agricultural Entomology. Your raw score out of 480 determines your All India Rank, which IARI New Delhi uses to fill M.Sc. seats through centralized counselling. If the exam is held in multiple shifts, NTA applies score normalization, so your final score may differ slightly from your raw score.

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Category-wise Safe Score for IARI New Delhi Agriculture Stream

IARI New Delhi records the highest closing cutoffs among all ICAR institutes for the Agriculture stream. Seat intake per discipline is limited, often 5–12 seats per subject, which means even a small score difference can shift your rank outside the selection zone. The expected safe scores for 2026, based on 2024–25 admission trends, are:

These are expected safe scores based on previous year trends and should be treated as estimates until official 2026 cutoffs are published. The discipline you choose within the Agriculture stream also matters — high-demand subjects like Plant Breeding and Genetics or Agronomy may require scores at or above the upper end of these bands at IARI New Delhi, while less-applied subjects can have relatively lower cutoffs.

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How to Calculate Your ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 Score

You can estimate your expected score immediately after the exam, before NTA publishes the official answer key or result.

Score = (Number of Correct Answers × 4) – (Number of Wrong Answers × 1)

Here is a worked example for a student who attempts 84 out of 120 questions:

A score of 276 here places a General category student comfortably within the expected safe zone for IARI New Delhi Agriculture seats. Once NTA releases the official answer key after July 2, 2026, students can match their responses and calculate an accurate expected score before the result.

Exam-day strategy: Given the –1 penalty, skipping a question where you are unsure is safer than guessing. Getting 68–70 questions correct with minimal wrong answers delivers a more reliable score than attempting all 120 with several errors.

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Previous Year Cutoff Trends for IARI New Delhi Agriculture Stream

ICAR does not publish discipline-wise score cutoffs directly, but closing ranks from previous counselling rounds can be used to estimate the score range needed. Based on available trend data, the approximate score ranges for IARI New Delhi Agriculture stream across recent years are:

The trend shows a gradual year-on-year increase of around 5–8 marks in the effective cutoff, reflecting growing competition. For 2026, scores are expected to remain consistent with or slightly above 2025 levels. All figures above are estimated based on available trends and are not official ICAR-published cutoffs for IARI New Delhi.

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Factors That Affect the Safe Score for IARI New Delhi

The safe score threshold for IARI New Delhi Agriculture stream shifts each year based on several variables:

• Exam difficulty level — A harder paper lowers average scores and can bring the effective cutoff down by 5–10 marks relative to a moderately difficult paper.
• Total number of applicants — Higher registration numbers increase competition and tend to push the effective cutoff upward at top ICAR institutes.
• Seat intake per discipline at IARI — With only 5–12 M.Sc. seats per subject, a single rank difference is significant. A 5-mark score gap can move a student from a confirmed seat to a waitlist position.
• Discipline within Agriculture stream — Agronomy, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Soil Science, and Plant Pathology are high-demand disciplines with tighter cutoffs at IARI. Niche subjects may have slightly lower effective cutoffs.
• NTA score normalization — If ICAR AIEEA PG 2026 is conducted in multiple shifts, NTA normalizes scores across shifts. Your final published score may differ from your raw attempt score.
• Category-wise seat reservation — IARI follows ICAR’s reservation norms. The number of seats per category per discipline directly affects how many students compete for each reserved slot, shifting category cutoffs up or down.