ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has announced that its Higher Education Aptitude Test, conducted through its Education Testing Council, will now be required for the HEC scholarships and for admission into MS and MPhil programs.

The HEC has fixed Jan 31 as the deadline for online registration. The test result will be valid for two years.

The exam is for applicants who have already applied through the official HEC portal and who intend to apply for HEC scholarships in the future as well as those interested in applying for admissions to MS and MPhil programmes in public and private universities.

According to HEC spokesperson Ayesha Ikram, the aptitude test will be conducted in four categories including HAT-1 for engineering and IT, HAT-2 for management science and business education, HAT-3 for art and humanities and social sciences and HAT-4 for agriculture and veterinary sciences, biological sciences, medical sciences and physical sciences.

The candidates will be marked via a 100pc grading system which will include 40 marks for quantitative reasoning, 30 marks for verbal reasoning and 30 marks for analytical reasoning. Applicants will have to appear register through the HEC website to appear in the exam.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018