A guide to competitive exams. Find out which exam you should be taking!

Numerous competitive exams in India are conducted for entrance into undergraduate and post graduate professional courses as well as for securing services in the government. 


The test formats and subjects vary according to the level of the test. Most are objective tests, followed by a personality test, and are conducted in various venues at centers across the country. 

Competitive exams are tough, with lakhs of aspirants appearing for a limited number of seats. Various competitive exams are listed below.

• UPSC (Union Public Service Commission)
• SSC (Staff Selection Commission)
• Defence Competitive Exams
• Railway Competitive Exams
• Bank Competitive exams

Other exams include various international exams which are required to take admissions in various foreign universities. It can be a graduate or post-graduate exam. Various international exams are mentioned below.

• Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) -  The GATE score/rank is used for admissions to Post Graduate Programmes (ME, M.Tech, MS, Direct Ph.D.) in institutes like IITs and IISc etc with financial assistance offered by MHRD. PSUs too use the GATE scores for recruiting candidates for various prestigious jobs with attractive remuneration.

• Graduate Mangement Admission test (GMAT) - The Graduate Management Admission Test is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, writing, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in written English for use in admission to a graduate management program, such as an MBA.

• Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) - Prospective graduate and business school applicants from all around the world who are interested in pursuing a master's, MBA, specialized master's in business or doctoral degree take the GRE General Test. Applicants come from varying educational and cultural backgrounds and the GRE General Test provides schools with a common measure for comparing candidates' qualifications. GRE scores are used by admissions or fellowship panels to supplement your undergraduate records, recommendation letters and other qualifications for graduate-level study.

• Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) - Scholastic Assessment Test is an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities in the US, Canada as well as other countries to select students for admissions to undergraduate courses. However, it is just one factor in the admissions decision. Schools also consider your high school GPA, academic transcript, letters of recommendation (LoR), interviews and personal essays.
  The best time to take SAT depends on a variety of factors: the schools to which you're applying, your application deadlines, your cash flow and your personality. The SAT is a standardised test that measures a student’s skills in three core areas: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. Students in classes 11 and 12 take SAT so that they can submit their scores to colleges as part of the college application process.

• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) - The TOEFL test is the most widely respected English-language test in the world, recognized by more than 9,000 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries, including Australia, Canada, the U.K. and the United States. The TOEFL iBT test measures your ability to use and understand English at the university level. And it evaluates how well you combine your listening, reading, speaking and writing skills to perform academic tasks.

• NEET - The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET-UG is an entrance examination in India, for students who wish to study any graduate medical course (MBBS/ dental course (BDS) or postgraduate course (MD / MS) in government or private medical colleges in India.NEET-UG (Undergraduate), for MBBS and BDS courses, are conducted by the Central board of secondary education (CBSE). NEET-UG replaced All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) and all individual MBBS exams conducted by states or colleges themselves in 2013. However, many colleges and institutes had taken a stay order and conducted private examinations for admission to their MBBS and BDS courses.NEET 2017 entrance was held on 7th may 2017 results are awaited.

• CAT - The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a computer based test held in India. The test scores a candidate on the bases of Quantitative Ability (QA), Verbal Ability (VA) and Reading Comprehension (RC), Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical Reasoning (LR). The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) started this exam and use the test for selecting students for their business administration programs. The test is conducted every year by one of the IIMs based on a policy of rotation.

• JEE - Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an all India common engineering entrance examination conducted for admission to various engineering colleges and courses all over the country. The test comprises two stages - JEE Main and the JEE Advanced. The exams are of the objective pattern. JEE Advanced is regarded internationally as one of the most challenging engineering admission tests.

• Note that the exams listed above aren't the only competitive exams available but some of the most common. 

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