Top 10 Facts To Know About ‘National Eligibility & Entrance Test’ / ‘NEET’- for Medical Courses in India

1. The ‘National Eligibility cum Entrance Test’(NEET) is an ‘Entrance Examination’ being conducted in India, for the students who wish to study any Graduate Medical Course -MBBS, Dental Course -BDS or Post Graduate Courses : MD and  MS in Government or Private Medical Colleges in India.
2. ‘NEET-UG (Undergraduate)’, for MBBS and BDS courses, is conducted by the ‘Central Board of Secondary Education’ (CBSE). From 2013 ‘NEET-UG’ has replaced all the:

• ‘All India Pre Medical Test’ (AIPMT) and
• Individual ‘MBBS Entrance Exams’, which had been conducted by the States and / or Medical Colleges.

However, some ‘Medical Colleges and Medical Institutes in India’ have  taken ‘Stay Orders from Courts and have been conducting ‘Private Entrance Examinations’ for Admissions to the MBBS and BDS Medical Courses.

3. The Medical Courses offered by the following ‘Medical Institutes’ are outside the purview of the ‘NEET’, as they were set up under separate Laws:

• ‘All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS), New Delhi, offering UG Medical Courses,
• ‘Postgraduate Institute for Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh’, offering PG Medical Courses,
• ‘Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education’, offering PG Medical Courses and
• ‘Jawaharlal Institute of Medical Education &Research’ (‘JIPMER’), Puducherry, offering ‘Medical Research Courses’.

4. Subsequent to the Announcement of ‘NEET’ in 2012, many States in India, including the following States, opposed ‘NEET’, in view of a vast variation between the ‘NEET Syllabus’ and the Syllabus of their States: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Some / many of the above States have been demanding exemption for them from the ‘NEET’ Examinations.

5. However, the First ‘NEET’ Examination was conducted on 5^th May 2013. The Supreme Court of India cancelled the ‘NEET’ Examination on 18^th July 2013, in its Order on 115 Petitions praying for cancelling the ‘NEET’ Examinations, and the ‘NEET’ Examinations were declared as ‘Illegal & Unconstitutional’ by the Apex Court of India. A 5 Judges Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India recalled the earlier Verdict of 2013 and restored the ‘NEET’ Examinations on 11^th April 2016, and the Central Government of India and the Medical Council of India were allowed to conduct the Common Entrance Examination-the ‘NEET’, until the SC would decide afresh on the validity of the ‘NEET’ Examinations.

6. And the Second ‘NEET’ Exam was conducted on 24^th July 2016. In 2017 the Third ‘NEET’ Exam was conducted on 7^th May 2017. The 2018 ‘NEET’ Exams have been scheduled to be conducted on 8^th May 2018.

7. From 2013 to 2015, the ‘NEET’ had been conducted in English & Hindi only. From 2017, the entrants of ‘NEET’ can write the examination in any of the following 10 Languages: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil and Telugu.

8. ‘NEET’ Examination is a Single Common Examination for Admission’ into almost all the Medical Colleges in India. ‘NEET’ Exam will enable the students and the parents to save considerable amount of time, energy and money, in getting admission into a Medical College for studying MBBS or BDS.

9. The marks obtained by the students in their Higher Secondary Board Examinations are taken into account only for fixing the eligibility to seek admission into a Medical / Dental College. The Board Marks are not included in the ‘cut off’ mark for admission into the Medical College.

10 . As the Syllabus of the ‘NEET’ Examinations is based on the Syllabus of the Central Board (CBSE) the students from the State Boards will find it very tough to write the examination. Students appearing in the languages other than English will face problems in answering the questions in the  ‘NEET’ Examinations, based on the ‘CBSE’-English Pattern, translated into the respective language, and such students will obviously  lose the ranks in the Medical Examinations.