GPAT goes online: Apply by 8th April

All India Council for Technical Education has announced the Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) 2013 for facilitating institutions to select suitable students for admission to the Master’s Programme in Pharmacy (M. Pharm) and for award of fellowships, for Postgraduate Pharmacy Programmes approved by AICTE.

Applicant should hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy of 4 years duration after 10+2, including lateral entry candidates.  Those who are in the final year of B. Pharmacy course are eligible for appearing in GPAT-2013-14 examination. Students in the 1st year to 3rd year of B. Pharmacy are not eligible to appear for GPAT-2013.

GPAT 2013 will be conducted as a computer based online test. The testing window will be open for three days from 16th May 2013 to 18th May 2013 in two sessions, the morning session being from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm and the afternoon session being from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm.

The 57 test venues include Ahmadabad, Allahabad, Amravati, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhavnagar, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Gulbarga, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolhapur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Kurnool, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Meerut, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur, Nanded, Nasik, Nellore, Noida, Panaji, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Rajahmundry, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shimla, Surat, Thiruvananthpuram, Tirupati, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Warangal.

GPAT-2013 will be a multiple choice test of 3 hours duration with 125 questions. For each correct answer 4 marks will be awarded and for each wrong answer 1 mark will be deducted. The Test Fee for General/OBC applicants is Rs.1200 + Bank charges as applicable. For SC/ST/PD applicants, it is Rs.600 + Bank charges as applicable.The fee can be paid throughNet Banking /Credit / Debit Card online through www.aicte-gpat.in . It can also be paid by Cash using the challan generated online and depositing cash in any branch of State Bank of India.

The Registration window of GPAT will be open at www.aicte-gpat.in / for Online Registration, till 8th April, 2013. The candidates will have option of selecting date and city for appearing in the test. Applicants will be required to give 3 choices of cities for online examination in the order of preference.

Allotment will be based on first come first served. Actual allotment however will be subject to availability of the slots in a particular city.

Before proceeding with the GPAT Registration, applicant should have the following items ready.

(i) Computer with good Internet connectivity so that there is no breakage of Internet during registration

(ii) All the details of the qualification of the applicant as they have to be entered during registration

(iii) A scanned clear photo of the applicant taken on a white background with the size of the photo not exceeding 140 x 160 (60 KB). This will have to be uploaded while registering

(iv) A scanned clear signature of the applicant on a white background with size not exceeding 60 x 90 (30KB). This also will have to be uploaded while registering

(v) A valid e-mail id which the applicant should be using at least for the next 6 months. All communication will be mailed to this e-mail id which will have to be entered while registering

(vi) A valid mobile number as all information via SMS will be sent to this number

(vii) A valid Credit / Debit card in case payment of fee is being made online

(viii) A Printer connected to the Computer system in case the applicant is planning to pay the fee by way of cash at the bank in which case,  3 copies of Challan will have to be printed

Online registration for GPAT is to be completed in three steps. In the first step, the applicant is expected to read the Instructions and do the Self Registration. Initially, for the first time, the applicant will have to enter the process of registration as a ‘New User’,accept the declaration and proceed. After this, self-registration has to be done. Here applicant will be required to enter few basic details. The details entered should be verified before clicking on the ‘Submit’ button on this page. Once the ‘Submit’ button is clicked, it will not be possible to edit any data entered there. On submitting, a unique 6 digit password will be generated by the system and shown on the computer screen. It will be sent via e-mail and SMS to the applicant. From this time point, applicant will be an ‘Existing User’. Applicant should now use his/her registered e-mail id and this unique 6 digit password, to login to the registration portal. This completes the self- registration.

In the next step, payment of application fee has to be done. If opting for online payment, the applicant should select ‘Online Payment’ mode and then complete the payment using Credit/Debit Card/ Net Banking. Once the payment is successfully done, applicant will receive a confirmation e-mail and SMS. Once the applicant gets the successful payment confirmation, he/she can proceed with the remaining part of registration process.

If the option is to pay the fee by cash, the applicant should select this option to pay by ‘Cash’ at any of the designated branch of SBI. Once this option is selected, applicant will see a ‘Challan’ on the screen with his/her details already filled in it. Applicant should take 3 printouts of this Challan, fill in the details wherever required in all the copies, and pay the fee by cash at the nearest branch of SBI, on the next day of generation of Challan. Cash Deposit will be accepted only from the next day of Challan generation. If challan is generated on 18th March 2013, then cash can be remitted only on 19th March.

On remitting the cash, the bank will return one copy of Challan with their stamp and a ‘Journal’ number written on it. Applicant should ensure that the ‘Journal’ number written is clearly visible. Applicant should than wait for 48 hours to proceed further. In these 48 hours, the payment details of the applicant will get updated in the registration portal.The applicant will receive an e-mail and SMS confirming that the payment data has got updated in the registration portal. Then the applicant should re-login to the portal and complete the remaining part of registration process.

In Step 3, applicant needs to fill the remaining part of the online application form. Once this is completed, applicant should once again check the complete data entered by clicking on ‘View/Modify’ button. This will allow the applicant to modify data, in case one needs to modify. Once the applicant is sure that all the data entered is accurate, he/she will have to accept a declaration and click on ‘I Agree’. The system will re-confirm the applicant for ‘Submit’. Once confirmed, the form will get finally ‘Submitted’ and no change in the data is possible after this ‘Submit’. Applicant will see a message on the screen stating ‘Thank you for successfully registering for the AICTE GPAT May 2013 exam. Please login from 29th April 2013 onwards to download your exam Admit Card. For latest updates, please visit www.aicte-gpat.in  ’.

Applicant can also click on ‘Preview’ button to view his/her filled form. If needed, the applicant may ‘Print’ the filled form and keep a copy for reference. This completes the registration process. The last date to pay Cash in bank is 9th April 2013. After this, the registration is to be completed by11th April 2013. Submission of final application after payment will not be possible after 11th April, 2013.

Applicants will be able to take the Print out of Hall ticket from 29.4.2013. Admit card will also be sent to the email address provided by the applicant. Hard copies of Admit cards will not be posted by AICTE. Admit Card is a mandatory requirement in order to take the test. Applicant must bring a print out of the Admit Card on the test day with photo and signature affixed on it and duly attested by Principal /Director of the institute or by gazette officer.

Applicant is also required to bring at least one original and valid (not expired) photo identification with name on the photo identification, matching the name as entered in the GPAT application. Acceptable forms of photo identification types are Driver's license, Passport, PAN Card, Voter ID, UID card or a notarized Affidavit (in English) with Photo, Signature, Date of Birth and Residential Address.

Photocopies/Scanned copies of the original will not be accepted. Candidates will not be permitted to take the test if photo identification is not presented.SC/ST candidates and Physically Disabled candidates are required to bring the valid caste certificate/valid Disability certificate as applicable,in Original along with an attested photocopy of the same.

For the Test beginning at 9.30 am, applicants are required to arrive at the test centre latest by 8 am for Security checks, Identity verification, and check-in. For the afternoon session which will begin at 2.30 pm, candidates are required to arrive at the test centre latest by 1 pm. The results of the test will be declared on 31.5.2013. GPAT- 2013 scorecard is valid for one year from the date of announcement of the result. Candidates will have the facility to take the Print out of Score Cards of GPAT 2013,from 31.5.2013 to 30.6.2013.

The detailed merit list will be provided to the respective State Governments for allotting the students through central counseling or otherwise as per their notified admission procedure.In case there is no central counseling Scores awarded will be used for admission in the AICTE approved Institutes /University Departments.

Qualifying in GPAT-2013 examination with a score card reading ‘Qualified for scholarship and admission into M. Pharmacy’ is the minimum eligibility criteria for getting a scholarship in M. Pharmacy. Seats of M. Pharmacy are reserved as per state/central government policy. Scholarship to the GPAT-2013 qualified candidates would be given by AICTE as per the rules/norms prevailing at that time.

The GPAT-2013 scorecard is valid only for one year for the purpose of obtaining scholarship in M. Pharmacy course. In respect of a person interested in getting registered for Ph.D Degree after completing M. Pharm Degree, GPAT scorecard is valid beyond one year. Such applicants need not appear in Ph.D. entrance/eligibility examination conducted by Indian Universities. For queries, applicants may contact overcustomercare@aicte-gpat.in or over helpline number, 022-66258304.

For detailed information, visit www.aicte-gpat.in .