Education Plus Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend GATE makes way for GPAT M. Venkata Reddy Attention Pharmacy graduates who are planning higher studies. This year you would have to take a new entrance examination to get admiss

Updated on: Monday, February 15, 2010

Attention Pharmacy graduates who are planning higher studies.

This year you would have to take a new entrance examination to get admissions in M. Pharmacy or in MS courses in government or private institutions.

Yes! This year it would be Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) instead of Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineers (GATE) conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Till last year, pharmacy graduates used to take the GATE along with other engineering graduates. Now the GPAT scores would be the basis for entry into M. Pharmacy, MS courses in reputed institutions like the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and Pharm. D (three-year) also. There would be some seats left for those who cleared the PGCET conducted by the State Government in Andhra Pradesh. That means, the convenor quota seats would be filled up by the GPAT qualified students and the remaining by the PGCET qualified students. The GPAT can also be taken by the B.Pharm graduates who intend to get admitted into the three-year Pharm.D course too.

The GPAT score is valid for one year and qualified students are eligible for Juior Research Fellowship in CSIR laboraties and CSIR/UGC sponsored research projects.

Eligibility: Four-year B. Pharma graduates; Students in the fourth year of B. Pharma; Final Year B. Pharm students who joined through lateral entry mode; Third year B. Pharm students can not take GPAT-2010.

Important Dates:

Applications available at bank counters till : February 22. Last date for submission of applications: March 12. GPAT to be held on May 2. Results on May 24.

How to apply:

Applications can be obtained from bank of Baroda branches or through the GPAT office in Vadodara.

Each application costs of Rs 1000 for general and OBC category students; Rs 500 for BC, SC, ST and Physically handicapped students. In Andhra Pradesh applications are available in Bank of Baroda branches in Hyderabad (Abids), Khammam (Gandhi Chowk), Warangal (station road), Visakhapatnam (Daba Garedens), Guntur (Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan), Vijayawada (Governorpeta) and tirupati (Masjid road).

Syllabus:

GPAT 2010 syllabus would be same as that of GATE symllabus. Though B. Pharm students study more than 20 subjects, the GPAT syllabus includes only nine subjects – Natural Products, Pharmacoogy, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Jurisprudence, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Microbiology and Clinical Pathology .

Dr. M. Venkata Reddy, president of Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council and former director of Drugs Control Administration, cautions students that in these prescribed nine subjects, several topics are not included in the syllabus. Hence students should carefully go through the syllabus supplied with the application form. Dr. Reddy says students need to prepare with an in-depth study of subjects as GPAT evaluation would be on a national level.

Negative Marks:

The GPAT exam would consist of a single paper of three hour duration. Students would have take 100 multiple choice objective type questions. Each correct answer will get one mark, while a wrong answer would get a one-third (1/30) negative mark.

The answers would have to be marked on an Optical Response Sheet (ORS) by darkening the appropriate bubble. Dr. Venkata Reddy points out that the question paper would be set with an objective to evaluate the candidate's skills, aptitude, knowledge in pharmacy field and his capacity in understanding the basic principles, formulae and laws governing the pharmacy profession.

Exam Centres:

GPAT would be conducted in 61 cities in the country out of which 7 centres are located in AP – Hyderabad, Khammam, Warangal, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Guntur.

Dr. Venkata Reddy's advise is that students should select colleges which have a dedicated faculty in addition to good infrastructure like library and laboratories.

Education Plus Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend GATE makes way for GPAT M. Venkata Reddy Attention Pharmacy graduates who are planning higher studies. This year you would have to take a new entrance examination to get admiss

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