KEAM Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

• Computer based, in different sessions over several days, each with its own question set.
• Five options per question, one of them the most appropriate response.
• Both papers run at 72 seconds a question.

Marking

The prospectus advises against answering if you aren't sure. But a candidate who doesn't answer at least one question is disqualified and can't be ranked, and the SC and ST exemption from the minimum score doesn't cover this.

Qualifying score

A minimum normalized score of 10 out of 300, for both Engineering and B.Pharm. SC and ST candidates are exempt from the minimum.

Normalization across sessions

Because sessions use different question sets, raw marks are normalized by the Percentile Interpolated Average Method, approved by a Normalization Committee under G.O.(Rt) No. 235/2024/H.Edn. dated 16 February 2024. Raw marks become percentile scores within each session, computed to eight decimal places, then are interpolated across sessions. The normalized score out of 300 is what enters the rank list, not your raw mark.

The syllabi are Annexure I of the KEAM 2026 Prospectus; there is no separate syllabus document. The standard is Higher Secondary or equivalent, but CEE calls the syllabi outlines only, says questions of applied nature of higher order can be expected, and says questions are not based on NCERT or any other textbooks exclusively.

Engineering is Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. Pharmacy is Chemistry and Physics. Question counts are under Exam pattern.

Mathematics (5 units)

• Algebra: sets, relations and functions; complex numbers; sequences and series; permutations, combinations and binomial theorem; matrices and determinants; linear inequalities
• Trigonometry: trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions
• Geometry: lines; conic sections; vectors; three-dimensional geometry
• Statistics: statistics and probability
• Calculus: functions, limits and continuity; differentiation; application of derivatives; indefinite and definite integrals; differential equations; linear programming

Physics (19 units)

Units and Measurement; Kinematics; Laws of Motion; Work, Energy and Power; Motion of System of Particles and Rigid Body; Gravitation; Properties of Bulk Matter; Thermodynamics; Behaviour of Perfect Gas and Kinetic Theory; Oscillations and Waves; Electrostatics; Current Electricity; Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism; Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents; Electromagnetic Waves; Optics; Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation; Atoms and Nuclei; Electronic Devices.

Chemistry (18 units)

Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry; Structure of Atom; Classification of Elements and Periodicity in Properties; Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure; Thermodynamics; Equilibrium; Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry; Solutions; Chemical Kinetics; d and f Block Elements; Coordination Compounds; Organic Chemistry: Some Basic Principles and Techniques; Hydrocarbons; Haloalkanes and Haloarenes; Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers; Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids; Organic Compounds Containing Nitrogen; Biomolecules.

The list has no s-block or p-block unit.

For the courses KEAM ranks on other tests, the syllabus isn't CEE's: NEET (UG) for the medical, agriculture, forestry, veterinary and fisheries courses, and NATA for Architecture.

Nativity

Academic eligibility

No Chemistry? The prospectus substitutes Computer Science, then Biotechnology, then Biology, in that order. The same chain applies to eligibility and to the rank computation.

Where the board holds exams in both years of Higher Secondary, the two years' marks are totalled. The Vocational Higher Secondary Examination, Kerala, is accepted as equivalent.

The Engineering rank: an Index mark out of 600

Under G.O.(Rt) No. 1615/2025/HEDN dated 26 December 2025, Engineering admission gives equal weight, 50:50, to the entrance exam and the qualifying exam.

Your Class 12 result is half your engineering rank, and in that half Mathematics is worth two and a half times Chemistry.

Board marks are normalized board by board: 100 × your mark / the highest mark any student of that board scored that year in that subject. Different years of the same board count as different boards. For CBSE and CISCE the national-level highest is used, or 100 per cent if it isn't available in time. If your board gives grades, CGPA or OGPA, you must submit the board's marks equivalent.

The other rank lists

• B.Pharm.: the normalized Pharmacy Entrance score alone, out of 300.
• Architecture: the NATA score out of 200 plus the qualifying exam marks, a total out of 400.
• Medical, Agriculture, Veterinary and the rest: the NEET (UG) result.

Ties

Engineering, in order: pre-normalized Mathematics score in the entrance exam, then pre-normalized Physics, then normalized board Mathematics, then board Physics, then the number of correct responses in Mathematics, then in Physics, then the older candidate, and finally CEE's decision. At equal scores, the candidate with more right answers wins, which favours whoever attempted more.

B.Pharm.: pre-normalized Chemistry, then Physics, then correct responses in Chemistry, then Physics, then age. Architecture: NATA score, then qualifying exam Mathematics, then age. Ayurveda: the higher NEET-UG rank.

Allotment

Seats are allotted from the rank lists through CEE's Centralised Allotment Process (CAP), in phases. It covers Government and aided colleges, colleges under KAU, KVASU and KUFOS, Government Cost-Sharing engineering colleges, B.Tech. courses affiliated to the Kerala universities, and the seats self-financing and autonomous institutions surrender to CEE.

No other person, institution or authority may use CEE's rank lists for admission without the Government of Kerala's written permission.

KEAM is an admission process, so no pay attaches to it. It settles which course, at which college, in which fee category.

Fee concessions, like reservation, are for Keralite candidates only. NK I candidates and the children of All India Service officers deemed Keralite get none.

CEE also handles fee exemptions and educational grants tied to family income, including provisions for families with annual income up to ₹6 lakh, and post-matric educational grants for SC and ST students. The Government orders are published on the CEE website.

Apply online through the KEAM Candidate Portal. One application covers any or all of the courses, and in 2026 CEE let candidates add courses to an application already submitted.

• The UAE exam centre costs an extra ₹16,000; give a local contact number.
• Payment is online only, by card or internet banking.
• The fee is never refunded.

Documents

Supporting documents are uploaded online by a later deadline. Higher Secondary mark lists, and the NATA score card if you want Architecture, must be uploaded by the date in CEE's notification. Anything sent any other way, or at any other time, isn't considered.

For Architecture, sit NATA (current or previous year accepted) early enough that the score reaches CEE in time. This applies even if Architecture is only one of your options.

CEE allots seats in:

• Government and aided colleges
• Colleges under the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) and the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS)
• Government Cost-Sharing engineering colleges
• Self-financing and autonomous institutions, for the seats surrendered to CEE
• B.Tech. courses affiliated to the universities in Kerala

Reservation in Government seats

After All India Quota, Government of India nominees, special reservations, PwD, supernumerary seats and the Management Quota are set aside, the remaining Government seats go as follows. Reservation is for Keralite candidates only.

CEE publishes separate provisional category lists for communal reservation, special reservation, PwD and EWS for each rank list.

Two medical colleges with their own pattern

• Government Medical College, Palakkad (Institute of Integrated Medical Sciences): SC 70 per cent, ST 2 per cent, General Merit 13 per cent, All India Quota 15 per cent.
• Government Medical College, Kollam: State Quota 50 per cent, wards of ESIC insured persons 35 per cent (not allotted by CEE), All India Quota 15 per cent.

The CBT is held at selected venues across Kerala, in sessions over several days. There's also a UAE centre for an extra ₹16,000. Your venue is on the admit card.

You report two hours before the paper and the gate shuts ten minutes before it. Arrive at the last minute and you miss the mock test.

Bring only the admit card, the photo ID it specifies and a transparent ball-point pen. Rough paper is provided. When the timer hits zero you're taken to an Exam Statistics page.

KEAM 2026

The cycle starts each January. Changes and extensions appear on the notifications page, in English and Malayalam.

Rank lists stay valid until the closing date of admission set by the Supreme Court, the central councils or the universities. KEAM 2026 records are kept only until 31 March 2027.

Download the admit card from the KEAM Candidate Portal. In 2026 it was available from 1 April, about two weeks before the exams began on 13 April.

It gives your venue, which isn't published anywhere else, and names the photo ID you must bring.

Lost your login? The portal has Forgot Application Number and Forgot Password options. Keep the login: you'll need it for answer key complaints, the rank list and allotment.

Answer key

The answer keys go up after all sessions are over and are notified in the papers. Complaints go through the Candidate Portal only, within three days, at ₹200 per question, refunded if the complaint is genuine. Subject expert committees decide and their word is final. Marks for a deleted question are distributed as ruled by the High Court of Kerala in 2002 (3) KLT 871.

Result and rank list

The entrance result comes first (on or before 10 May in 2026) and the rank lists later (on or before 20 June), because they need your board marks too. CEE also publishes Result Highlights and Toppers for Engineering, Pharmacy and Architecture, with the subject-wise statistical characteristics used for standardisation.

There's no revaluation or rechecking. CEE says the computerised scoring is error-free and won't correspond about it.

CEE publishes a Last Rank page each cycle: the rank of the last candidate admitted to each course, at each college, in each category, at each phase of allotment. That's the KEAM cut-off. It comes out of allotment, not in advance. The allotment lists are published alongside it.

The only bars fixed in advance are the qualifying minimums: a normalized score of 10 for Engineering and B.Pharm., the NEET percentiles and 20-mark minimum under Eligibility, and the NATA minimum in the NATA brochure for Architecture.

You can't turn a raw entrance score into a predicted rank. It's normalized across sessions first, then added to board marks normalized against your own board's topper. And one year's last rank reflects that year's candidates and seat matrix.

1. Don't drop your board year. Your Class 12 marks are half the engineering Index mark, and what counts is your mark against the topper of your own board.
2. Put Mathematics first. It's half the engineering paper, the heaviest subject in the board half, and the first tie-breaker. For Pharmacy, Chemistry plays that role.
3. Guess with some sense. With five options, +4 and −1, a blind guess breaks even and a half-informed one gains. If you can eliminate nothing, leave it.
4. Never leave the whole paper blank. That's a disqualification, not a zero.
5. Prepare beyond one textbook. CEE says questions go beyond NCERT and expects applied, higher-order questions.
6. Practise on a computer, with five-option questions, and use CEE's mock test.
7. Keep your own record of answers so you can use the three-day complaint window.
8. Sort out nativity and documents early. Work out whether you're Keralite, NK I or NK II, get grade-to-marks equivalents from your board if needed, and upload everything by the deadline.
9. Read the Last Rank page for the courses and colleges you want.

CEE doesn't publish previous question papers or sample papers for KEAM. What it does publish, on the KEAM portal, is the Prospectus with the syllabus in Annexure I, the answer keys after each exam (April), and a mock test facility before it.

A practice paper that matches KEAM has five options per question and the question counts under Exam Pattern. A four-option set doesn't.

• Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Kerala
• KEAM 2026 Candidate Portal: apply, admit card, complaints, rank and allotment
• KEAM 2026 Prospectus (PDF): the full scheme, syllabus in Annexure I
• Notifications and press releases
• Answer keys, Rank lists, Category lists, Allotment lists
• Last Rank: closing ranks by course, college, category and phase
• Result highlights and toppers
• NEET (UG), National Testing Agency
• NATA, Council of Architecture

Who conducts KEAM?

The Office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE), Government of Kerala.

Is KEAM one exam?

No. CEE sets papers only for Engineering and B.Pharm. Architecture uses NATA, and the medical, agriculture, veterinary and fisheries courses use NEET (UG).

How many options does each question have?

Five.

What happens if I answer nothing at all?

You're disqualified, whatever your category.

Do my Class 12 marks count?

For Engineering they're half the Index mark of 600.

Is there a minimum score to get a rank?

A normalized 10 out of 300 for Engineering and B.Pharm. SC and ST candidates are exempt.

Does being on the rank list mean I'm eligible?

No. Rank lists include everyone who qualified, regardless of academic eligibility. That's checked at admission.

What is the application fee?

₹925 for Engineering or B.Pharm. and ₹650 for Architecture or Medical and Allied (General); ₹400 and ₹260 for SC; nil for ST. Never refunded.

Can I get my paper revalued?

No. The only remedy is a complaint against the answer key within three days.

What is the KEAM cut-off?

The Last Rank page: the last rank admitted for each course, college, category and allotment phase.

I want Architecture as well. What do I do?

Sit NATA and get the score to CEE by the deadline. Late scores aren't considered.