Need for National Eligibility Entrance
Examination (NEET)
It was felt that common entrance examination is essential as it:
● Ensures uniformity across the country,
● Sets a minimum standard and
● Is convenient for the candidates
● Saves resources.
● Takes care of malpractices.
Challenges
i. To counter act disparities in existing syllabus in inter
& intra states and to ensure level playing field a
common syllabus is proposed for all the examinations
including MBBS entrance, MBBS exit examination &
PG entrance examinations and Superspecialties
entrance examinations.
ii. Reservation of seats as applicable to the states would
be taken care of in all common entrance
examinations.
Based on the recommendations of undergraduate (UG)
curriculum committee and post-graduate (PG) curriculum
committee, MCI also intends to conduct licentiate examination
after internship completion to qualify for Indian Medical Graduate
(IMG) status. The UG and PG curriculum committees after various
discussions opined that IMG licentiate examination and common
entrance examination for PG i.e. National Eligibility-cum-Entrance
Test (NEET-PG) would be separate. The essential reason is that
IMG examination shall assess the minimum defined standards
for a competent doctor relevant to Indian needs whereas the NEETPG
examination is intended for ranking with explicit need to
differentiate students for merit. The UG/PG committees suggested
to hold the NEET-PG prior to internship so that a candidate spend
time for preparing during internship.
Framework of Examinations
All the examination would be structured in framework. These would
include:
i. Common syllabus throughout the country
ii. Subject wise allocation of marks: MBBS entrance
examination, would have 30% marks each for Physics
and Chemistry and 40% marks for Biology. In PG
entrance examination, distribution of marks would
be as per relevance of the subjects, with clinical
subjects carrying more weight age than pre and
paraclinical subjects. For DM/ Mch entrance, there
would be three kinds of papers, M.S. surgery level
for all M.Ch. courses (surgical specialties), MD
Medicine level for D.M. (medical subspecialties) and
M.D. Pediatrics level for Pediatric subspecialties
(Pediatric Gastroenterology, Pediatric Neurology,
Neonatology and some other upcoming disciplines).
iii. Type of Paper/Questions: MCQ pattern of
questions would be followed for MBBS entrance. The
PG and DM/MCh entrance examination papers
would have multiple types of MCQs, namely single
response (Section A-60%), multiple T/F, images,
assertion/reasoning questions and patient
management questions (Section B-40%).
iv. Multi-lingual paper would be considered in
MBBS entrance examination only In certain states
(Tamil Nadu, UP, MP) where the exam is currently
conducted both in English and the local language
v. Generation of questions & preparation of
validated question bank: The questions will be of
single response type MCQs. In case of PG and DM/
MCh entrance , there will be a single paper of 180
questions of 3 hours duration. Each question will
carry one mark. There will be negative marking for
wrong answer (0.25 marks). Questions generated
during dedicated workshop sessions would be
validated by a second independent group. A
minimum of 2000 questions need to be made in the
beginning and this bank can be gradually increased.
vi. Setting of Question Paper: MBBS entrance
examination, will have a single paper of 250
questions (75 questions from physics and chemistry
each and 100 from Biology) and be of 3 hours
duration. Questions will have four options with single
correct answer and three distracters. In PG and DM/
MCh entrance examination, there will be a single
paper of 180 questions of 3 hours duration. Each
question will carry one mark.
vii. Eligibility Criteria: The student would have passed
12th class examination securing minimum of 50%
for General category & 40% for Reserved category
in aggregate of Physics, Chemistry and Biology from
a recognized board before admission. In
postgraduate medical entrance examination,
candidate would have passed the Final MBBS
examination and have completed internship. The
students who are likely to complete internship by
March 31 are also eligible to apply but would
complete internship before admission.
viii. Conduct of Examination: Advertisement for MBBS
entrance examination, would be sent in last week of
November in all major newspapers of the country
and applications collected both online and offline by
January 15th 12.00 Noon. Admit cards will be
dispatched by April 15th and the exam would be
conducted on last Sunday of May. The PG entrance
exam would be conducted at the end of the internship
in Mid January- mid February as is the current
practice. In future the common exam will be held at
the start of internship as candidates. For DM and
MCh, the advertisement would be sent in January in
all major newspapers of the country and applications
collected online by March end. The admit cards will
be dispatched by middle of April and the exam would
be conducted on the First Sunday of June so that the
course starts from July of each year.
ix. Examination centers: Centers would allocated
depending on the number of applicants from each
region. To prevent impersonation biometric data
(finger prints, photo and signature) of each candidate
would be collected and matched at the time of
admission. This work can be outsourced to agencies
involved in conducting other large scale national level
examinations.
x. Evaluation: The evaluation would be done centrally
with the help of an agency, well versed with OCR
evaluation and a merit list as per eligibility decided by
MCI would be prepared. Presently minimum of 50%
marks are required by a general candidate and 40%
by other categories for admission. The merit list may
be prepared using percentile score and there may
not be any cut-off level. Both all India and state wise
lists will be prepared and sent to respective
Governments to fill the All-India and state seats
xi. Tie Breaks: For MBBS entrance examination, the
following rules in order will apply:
1. Marks in Biology section of paper (Higher marks
will be placed higher in the rank)
2. Marks in Chemistry section of paper (Higher
marks will be placed higher in the rank)
3. Marks in Physics section of paper (Higher marks
will be placed higher in the rank)
4. Total number of negative responses (Fewer
negative responses will be placed higher in the
rank)
5. Date of birth (older person will be placed higher
in the rank).
For PG entrance examination, tie break will be resolved
by marks in Section B (patient management questions)
and student scoring higher marks will be placed
higher. If there is still a tie it will be resolved by marks
in the assertion/reasoning questions.
xii. Online Conduct of Examinations: MBBS
entrance examination will be conducted by the
standard paper-based test ; online will be considered
then in subsequent years. For DM/MCH & PG
entrance examination, it may be possible to conduct
online examination as the numbers of candidates are
low.
xiii. Cost of Examination and fees: In MBBS entrance
examination, an application fee of Rs. 1000
(Unreserved category) and Rs 800 (Reserved
category) would be charged. The cost of examination
will be approximately Rs. 500 per student all inclusive
of expenses incurred. In PG entrance examination,
an application fee of Rs. 3000 would be charged.
The cost of conduct of examination will be
approximately Rs. 1000 per student besides cost of
generating a question bank etc. If online exam is done
than the charges may be higher: An application fee
of Rs 5000 would be charged. The cost of
examination will be approximately Rs 4000 per
student besides cost of generating a question bank
etc.
xiv. Examination Cell: This will ensure secrecy,
confidentiality and proper preparation of the paper
and conduct of exam.
● For exploring the possibility of holding NEET-PG before
internship, we strongly opine that for the year 2012, only
the NEET-PG for post-internship candidates to be held in
January 2012 would be notified.
The examinations will be conducted commencing from 2012
onwards.
National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test
for Post Graduates (NEET-PG) for 2012
Candidates who have completed internship or those
expecting to complete by March 31, 2012 will be eligible
to take the examination. About 100,000 and maybe upto
a maximum of 1,50,000 candidates are expected to take
the examination. It will be notified in August 2011 with
applications collected by September end. The admit cards
will be dispatched by middle of November 2011. The
examination will be online type conducted in the middle of
January, 2012 and the number of sessions etc will be
finalized after the feasibility is explored. The MD/MS courses
will commence from May 2, 2012. The candidates aspiring
for direct 5-year Neurosurgery and neurology super-specialty
or similar courses will have to take this NEET-PG
examination for the courses commencing in August. There
will be a common paper with180 MCQs at MBBS standard
to be answered in 3 hours.