UPCOMING MEDICAL EXAM

Conducted once a year, NEET is one of the most significant National level exams held for MBBS/BDS admissions after class 12th. In 2019, around 15 lakhs candidates applied for the medical exam that is expected to rise this year.

In a recent interview on October 4 2019, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Ministry of Health and Welfare, announced NEET 2020 to be the single entrance exam for medical UG courses in India. Through an official notification on August 2019, National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced important dates of NEET 2020. Let’s have a look:

1. NEET Eligibility Criteria

• Educational Qualification: Candidates who have completed or appearing in class 12th with minimum 5 subjects including English, Chemistry, Physics as compulsory subjects can apply. Candidates of private or distance learning students and those who have Biology as an additional subject are also eligible for the exam.
• Minimum Percentage Required: General candidates should score minimum 50%, General PWD – 45%, OBC/SC/ST – 45% and OBC/SC/ST PWD – 40%.
• Number of Attempts: There is no particular limit on the number of attempts for NEET 2020. Candidates may appear for the exam as many times as they are willing to appear.
• Age Limit: A candidate who has attained 17 years of age is eligible for NEET. As per an interim order of Supreme Court, there is no upper age limit for NEET 2020. 

NEET eligibility allows any candidate to appear for NEET exam that has completed or appeared in class 12th with 5 subjects (English, Chemistry and Physics are compulsory) and a minimum score of 50% for General Category is compulsory. 

2. Examination date for NEET 2020, Format and Fee

The examination will be held on May 3, 2020. As per the updates, there will be no change in the syllabus, question formats and language. Candidates who belong to the General or OBC category will have to pay an application fee of Rs. 1400, whereas those belonging to reserved categories such as: SC/ST/PWD have to pay Rs. 750.  

3. Details that will be required to fill the application form are:

• Applicant’s name, father’s name, mother’s name, address, date of birth, mobile number, email id
• Aadhaar number/ bank account number/ ration card number / election card/ passport number or any other government identity card number
• The details of the scanned images to be uploaded are as follows:

Photograph: 10 to 100 kb, format should be JPG

Signature: 3 to 20 kb, format should be JPG

4. Registration of NEET 2020

The filing up of application form will start from 2nd December, 2019 and will end on December 31st December, 2019. 

5. NEET Application correction

NEET Application correction is likely to be available from the second week of January who would like to correct mistakes in their forms. Candidates may also access their forms by logging into their accounts at the official website of NTA. Only successfully registered candidates can avail this facility. 

6. NEET 2020 Reservation Criteria

• Economically Weaker Section (EWS)    10%
• Scheduled Caste (SC)                                15%
• Scheduled Tribe (ST)                                 7.5%
• Other Backward Caste (OBC)                  27%
• Persons with Disabilities                          5%

The rest of the unreserved seats will be filled based on the merit achieved in NEET 2020.

7. NEET 2020 Exam Pattern

• Candidates will be given a question paper, and they have to mark their responses in the provided OMR sheet.
• NEET syllabus is divided into 3 sections – Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
• Questions from the syllabus of class X – XII are asked in NEET.

Other important details:

Subjects	Physics, Chemistry, Biology (Zoology and Biology)
Types of Questions	Multiple Choice Questions
Number of Questions	Biology – 90 (Zoology – 45 and Botany – 45), Physics – 45 and Chemistry – 45
Marking scheme	4 marks for every correct answer and 1 mark for every incorrect answer
Total Marks	720
Duration	3 hours
Languages	2 official languages and 9 regional languages

8. Books suggestion:

Candidates are advised to go through class 11th and 12th NCERT books at least twice before referring to any other book as they are considered to be the best source for NEET preparation. Since syllabus for NEET was determined by CBSE, hence NCERT offers an extra edge.

9. Download date of Admit Card

NEET Admit Card 2020 can be downloaded on March 27, 2020. 

• The admit cards can be downloaded by logging into their accounts. 
• Admit cards shall be available for only those aspirants who have successfully paid the registration fees. 
• NEET admit cards shall not be sent to the candidates via post, it will be only available online.
• NEET 2020 will contain details like: candidate’s name, exam date, center details, candidate DOB etc. 

10. Mode of Examination

The examination will be held in an offline mode (pen – paper-based test).

11. Result date

• The result date of NEET 2020 is 4th June 2020. 
• Before result declaration, the answer keys will be released by NTA.
• Candidates will be allowed to send challenges against the answer keys on a fee of INR 1000 per answer which may be refunded if NTA accepts the representation.
• The result will be applicable for admissions in all the medical colleges in India including AIIMS and JIPMER.
• Candidates must save a copy of their results for future references.

The admissions to medical courses like AYUSH will also be done on the basis of NEET 2020 score. 

12. NEET 2020 Cut off

NEET Cut Off 2020 will be released along with the exam results announcements. Candidates need to attain minimum marks in order to qualify the medical entrance exam. NEET Cut Off will be based on various factors such as number of appeared candidates, category of the candidate and difficulty level of the exam.

13. NEET Tie-Breaking Criteria

If two or more candidates score equal marks, in that case, the following process of comparison shall be followed to resolve the situation:

• Candidate having higher marks in Zoology and Botany will be prioritized.
• Candidate with a higher score in Chemistry shall be preferred.
• Candidate with lesser incorrect answers shall be prioritized.
• If the still persists, candidate older in age will be preferred.

14. Counseling details:

Once the result will be out, the counseling will start thereafter separately for the All India Quota for 15% of the Government Medical Seats in the country plus seats of Deemed Universities and Central Universities and State Wise counseling for 85% of the Government seats and all private seats of the state. 

• Directorate General of the Health Services of the Medical Counseling Committee conducts NEET Counseling.
• 15% of All India quota counseling seats are reserved for central institutions such as BHU, AMU, AFMC, ESI, Delhi University (DU), and Deemed Universities.
• Based on the merit list, remaining other counseling and admission seats are available in State Medical Institutions or Colleges or Universities that would follow instructions provided by the State Government and authorities of the Dental or Medical counseling process.
• Candidates would have the option of resigning or surrendering the seat allotted in the counseling process. However, further participation in NEET Counselling shall not be possible for such candidates.

15. NEET 2020 Exam Centers

• NEET aspirants should list 3 locations as their most suitable exam centers during the time of registration.
• Details like exam center, essential guidelines, exam day as well as time will be mentioned in NEET Admit card.
• Candidates are requested to visit the allocated exam center prior to the actual exam day, so that, last minute rush and confusion shall be avoided.
• Candidates can pick their NEET 2020 Exam centers from the following options

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