ICAR AIEEA (PG): postgraduate admission stream
What the AIEEA (PG) paper tests
ICAR AIEEA (PG) is the postgraduate admission stream for Master's programmes in agriculture and allied sciences at ICAR-deemed universities and participating State Agricultural Universities. It is a computer-based objective paper in the subject you select at the time of application, and the questions sit at the level of the undergraduate core of that discipline rather than at a single textbook's end-of-chapter exercises. Expect definitions, processes, calculations and applied interpretation across the sub-fields of your paper code.
Core rules and concepts
- Select the paper code that matches your bachelor's degree; the syllabus is the undergraduate curriculum of that discipline.
- Revise foundational chains, not isolated facts: soil formation to nutrient availability; pollination to seed set; input response to cost of cultivation.
- Calculation items usually need one clean step plus unit discipline (kg/ha, ppm, cmol/kg, percent, probability).
- Admission is merit-based through ICAR's online counselling; your rank in the subject paper drives seat and university allotment.
Worked example
Two pure lines of a diploid crop differ at three independently assorting loci, and the F1 is selfed. What fraction of F2 is homozygous at all three loci? At one locus, an F2 from a monohybrid self is homozygous with probability 1/2 (1/4 AA + 1/4 aa). Because loci assort independently, multiply: (1/2)^3 = 1/8 = 12.5%. The tempting answer (1/4)^3 = 1/64 is the chance of one specified homozygote such as AABBCC, not the chance of being homozygous at every locus.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading a 'NOT' or 'EXCEPT' stem as a positive question.
- Mixing precision with accuracy, broad-sense with narrow-sense heritability, or analytical purity with physical purity.
- Using the wrong denominator in percentage, dose or yield calculations; carry units through every step.
- Answering from one favourite sub-discipline when the item belongs to another, such as extension terminology in an economics item.