Alerts and Updates for EMRS PGT Biology

EMRS PGT Biology paper at a glance

Tier-I contains no Biology at all. The NESTS Information Bulletin and the PGT syllabus document both define Part-V Domain Knowledge as experiential activity-based pedagogy with case-study questions for 20 marks plus National Education Policy 2020 for 10 marks, so all 100 scored Tier-I marks are general ability, pedagogy and policy. Biology is examined only in Tier-II, where all 100 marks are the subject. Tier-I negative marking is one third of a mark per wrong answer; Tier-II runs three hours. The 99-post figure comes from coaching reporting rather than from a machine-readable official table.

Dates and windows

This schedule is common to every subject in the ESSE-2025 PGT recruitment: one notification, one application window, one Tier-I sitting and one Tier-II date for all PGT subjects. The only Biology-specific entry is the Tier-II result of 18 September 2026, because NESTS is finalising results post by post. The exam and result dates before September 2026 are reported by Prepp and CareerPower.

What this means for your preparation

The single thing most PGT Biology candidates get wrong is the level of the paper. The post demands a post-graduate degree, so aspirants prepare from post-graduate texts in botany, zoology or life sciences. The syllabus NESTS actually published on 19 September 2025 is a list of 30 chapter heads that map onto senior secondary Biology, from Biological Classification to Biodiversity and Conservation. Depth beyond that list is not what the paper is testing.

Read the 30 heads as the boundary

The official PGT syllabus sets out Biology as named chapters: The Living World, Biological Classification, Plant Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Morphology and Anatomy of Flowering Plants, Structural Organisation in Animals, Cell as the Unit of Life, Biomolecules, Cell Cycle and Cell Division, Photosynthesis, Respiration in Plants, Plant Growth and Development, Breathing and Exchange of Gases, Body Fluids and Circulation, Excretion, Locomotion and Movement, Neural and Chemical Coordination, Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants, Human Reproduction and Reproductive Health, Principles of Inheritance and Variation, Molecular Basis of Inheritance, Evolution, Human Health and Diseases, Biotechnology Principles and Applications, Organisms and Populations, Ecosystem, and Biodiversity and Conservation. That is the examinable boundary. Reading a post-graduate monograph on immunology adds nothing that these heads ask for.

Botany and zoology are weighted alike

Count the heads and the split is close to even: plant kingdom, morphology, anatomy, photosynthesis, plant respiration, plant growth, reproduction in flowering plants and much of ecology on one side; animal kingdom, structural organisation, breathing, circulation, excretion, locomotion, neural and chemical coordination, human reproduction and human health on the other. Most candidates come from a specialised post-graduate stream and are strong on one half. A zoology postgraduate who cannot confidently draw and label a transverse section of a dicot stem, or a botany postgraduate vague on the nephron and the cardiac cycle, is giving away marks that the other half of the paper will not compensate for.

99 posts makes Biology a tight field

Biology carries 99 posts against Chemistry's 169 and Physics's 198, as reported by CareerPower. With Tier-II shortlisting reported at one to ten against vacancies, the Biology Tier-II hall held on the order of a thousand candidates for those 99 posts, and after category-wise distribution the unreserved slice is small. NESTS has not published a subject-wise cut-off for either tier, and the 18 September result notice gives individual marks through login rather than a cut-off table, so any figure circulating as the Biology cut-off is not official. Plan on the assumption that the margin is thin rather than on a remembered number.

The 60 descriptive marks decide Biology papers

Tier-II is reported as 40 objective plus 60 descriptive over three hours on the subject alone. Biology descriptive answers reward exactly what multiple-choice practice does not build: a labelled diagram drawn quickly and correctly, a process written as ordered steps, and a definition stated before the explanation. Photosynthesis and respiration pathways, the cardiac cycle, the menstrual cycle, DNA replication and transcription, and recombinant DNA technique are the heads that lend themselves to long answers because they are sequential and diagrammable. Practising these on paper against a clock is worth more than another objective mock, because 60 per cent of the deciding paper is written.

Tier-I contains no Biology whatsoever

This is the point most Biology candidates get wrong. Part-V of Tier-I is called Domain Knowledge, which reads like a subject section, but the Information Bulletin and the NESTS PGT syllabus both define it as experiential activity-based pedagogy and case-study questions for 20 marks plus National Education Policy 2020 for 10 marks. Not one of the 100 scored Tier-I marks is Biology. Teaching Aptitude carries another 30, and General Awareness, Reasoning and ICT add 40. The 20-mark English and Hindi language section is qualifying at 40 per cent taken together, a minimum of 8 out of 20, and must be cleared before the rest counts. A Biology specialist who revises only the subject can therefore be eliminated before Biology is ever examined.

Common questions

How many EMRS PGT Biology posts are there in ESSE-2025?

CareerPower reports 99 PGT Biology posts, drawn from the NESTS notification, within a total of 1,460 PGT vacancies across eleven subjects. That places Biology below Chemistry at 169 and Physics at 198. The subject-wise table in the NESTS Information Bulletin PDF is not machine readable, so we are citing the figure as reported by a coaching site rather than as independently confirmed from the bulletin. Posts are further distributed by category, including unreserved, EWS, OBC, SC, ST and PwBD.

What is the EMRS PGT Biology syllabus and at what level?

The NESTS PGT syllabus document of 19 September 2025 lists Biology as 30 chapter heads, beginning with The Living World, Biological Classification, Plant Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, and ending with Organisms and Populations, Ecosystem, and Biodiversity and Conservation. Between those sit cell biology, biomolecules, plant physiology, human physiology, reproduction, genetics, evolution, human health and biotechnology. The heads correspond to senior secondary Biology chapters rather than to post-graduate specialisms, even though a post-graduate degree is required to apply.

Has the EMRS PGT Biology Tier-II result been declared?

Yes. NESTS issued the Tier-II result notice covering PGT Biology, along with Economics, History and Physics, on 18 September 2026. Candidates who sat the Tier-II examination can view their marks and their shortlisting status for document verification by logging in with their registration number and password on the examination portal. The notice does not publish a merit list or a cut-off, and says results for the remaining posts are still being finalised and will be released progressively.

What is the EMRS PGT Biology exam pattern in Tier-I and Tier-II?

Tier-I carries no Biology. It is 100 scored marks: General Awareness 10, Reasoning 15, ICT 15, Teaching Aptitude 30 and Part-V Domain Knowledge 30, that last part being experiential activity-based pedagogy and case studies for 20 marks and National Education Policy 2020 for 10. A further 20 marks of English and Hindi are qualifying at 8 out of 20 combined. Tier-II is entirely Biology: 40 marks objective and 60 marks descriptive over three hours. Shortlisting into Tier-II is reported at a one-to-ten ratio against vacancies.

Is there negative marking in the EMRS PGT Biology paper?

One third of a mark is deducted for each wrong answer in Tier-I, as set out in the NESTS scheme of examination. Because Tier-I contains no Biology at all, subject instinct is no guide there and guessing across the Domain Knowledge, Reasoning and ICT sections is a poor trade. For the Tier-II descriptive component of 60 marks no negative marking has been published, and the final answer keys issued on 4 February 2026 relate to the objective part of the examination only.

What does an EMRS PGT Biology posting involve?

Eklavya Model Residential Schools are boarding schools run by NESTS under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Scheduled Tribe students, with 405 schools functional out of 708 sanctioned as of August 2024 and enrolment of 1,23,841 students in 2023-24 according to PIB. A Biology PGT teaches senior secondary classes and normally shares residential and hostel duties, frequently in a tribal block rather than a town. The pay is Level 8, Rs 47,600 to Rs 1,51,100, as reported by CareerPower.