The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), formerly the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), is the qualifying test for MBBS and BDS programmes in Indian medical and dental colleges. It is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Before NTA, which is an independent autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation, the test was conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The examination, which offers 90,000 seats in MBBS and BDS Colleges of India, is conducted in the month of May every year.
A candidate who wishes to study medical courses needs to have Physics, Chemistry, Biology / Biotechnology as their compulsory subjects in Class 10th and 12th and must have passed these subjects. The candidate has to show their passing certificate at the time of the counseling round. Marks in Mathematics are not considered in NEET-undergraduate exam (NEET-UG).
Other than undergraduate courses, NTA also administers NEET post-graduation (NEET-PG), an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination for admission to various MD/MS and PG diploma courses.
The NEET exam is conducted online and in 11 languages — English, Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Marathi, Urdu Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, and Assamese. The duration of the examination is three hours and a candidate needs to answer 180 questions. The exam paper is divided into three sections — Physics, Chemistry and Biology (Botany and Zoology).
As soon as NEET results are announced, NTA declares the counselling process too. The schedule for NEET counselling gets uploaded on the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) website.
Why NEET?
.To create an umbrella or single entrance exam for all medical aspirants in India.
b.Till now admission to the se seats was done through national state level entrance exams. There were over 25 such different Medical Entrance Examinations in India for admission into various Govt. & Pvt. Medical Colleges.
c.On an average a student appeared in 7-9 entrance exams, thereby causing unnecessary stress on them as well as on parents.
d.Moreover, giving so many exams creates lot of financial burden for the parents since each examinations involves expenses like Application Fee & commuting to appear for the entrance test in various cities / at various test centres. So NEET will avoid unnecessary wastage of time, effort & money.
e.Moreover, multiple exams also pose the challenge of preparing for different syllabi and patterns for students. This further increases the stress among students.
f.NEET will replace AIPMT and other state-level CET such as Delhi-PMT, MHCET, R-PMT, WBJEE, EAMCET etc. (AIIMS does not come under NEET)
