The Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi directs the ARS exam for recruitment of scientist vacancies in Agricultural Research Services (ARS) under various disciplines. It is conducted in two stages namely ASRB ARS Preliminary Exam and ASRB ARS Main exam.

The ARS (Preliminary) Exam is a qualifying exam and its marks are not carried forward for determining final merit of candidates. All aspirants wishing to appear for ASRB ARS need to appear for both Preliminary and Main examination and viva-voce.

ASRB ARS Paper Pattern:

Two separate competitive written exams followed by Viva-voce shall be conducted as per the following plan of examination:-

(a) ARS (Preliminary) (Objective Type) 150 Marks and 2 hours duration
(b) ARS (Main) (Descriptive Type) 240 Marks and 3 hours duration
(c) Viva-voce

(a) ARS- (Preliminary) (Objective Type) 150 Marks and 2 hours duration:

ARS (Preliminary) Exam have one paper of 150 marks with all multiple choice objective questions to be solved in 2 hours (Two hours), from the respective professional subject(s) for which candidate has opted.

The Exam is conducted in online format at the designated Centres.

The answers are to be indicated on the Computer itself during the Examination.

Negative marking: 1/3 marks for wrong answer.

The total marks obtained will be rounded off to the next higher integer in case of 0.5 and above and to the immediate lower integer in case of 0.4 and below

Minimum marks required for qualifying ASRB ARS preliminary exam:
• Un-reserved (UR) (General): 45%.
• OBC (Non-Creamy layer): 40%.
• SC / ST/ Person with Disability (PwD): 35%.

(b) ARS (Main) (Descriptive Type) 240 Marks and 3 hours duration:

ARS (Main) Exam Paper has only one paper of 240 marks to be completed in 3 hours duration. The paper shall be divided in three parts A, B and C.

Part ‘A’ consists of 40 questions of 2 marks each.
In this part, answers required will be of very short, not exceeding 10 words at the most.

Part ‘B’ has 20 questions of 5 marks each requiring one or two paragraphs and/or graphic explanation.

Part ‘C’ will have 6 (six) essay type or descriptive type questions. Each question will carry 10 (ten) marks and may have two or more parts.

One, who obtains such minimum qualifying marks in the Main Exam as may be fixed by the Board in its discretion, is called for viva-voce in the ratio of 1:5 (category-wise) for each post.

(c) Viva-voce:

One is interviewed by a Board of competent and unbiased experts in the respective disciplines, who will have before them a record of career.

The object of the viva-voce is to assess suitability for the Service for which has competed.