NEET, short for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test, is a National Entrance Examination that offers admission to various Medical and Dental colleges all over the world.

Earlier, AIPMT (All India Pre Medical Test), conducted by CBSE board, was used to select students for MBBS and BDS courses across the country. NEET, however, is similar and replaced AIMPT. Every year, in May, NEET is conducted, offering approximately 90,000 seats for MMBS and BDS courses.

From this year that is from 2020, NEET will also be applied to AIIMS and JIPMER. All medical aspirants will have to sit for NEETs.

Eligibility Criteria

Before you move further with filling an application form, you must know the eligibility criteria for the application

As a candidate, you need to have Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology as your compulsory subject during your 10th or 12th, and must have scored the pass marks in them. The scores of Mathematics are not considered. 

A minimum qualifying percentage is also required in the subjects mentioned above, which varies for different categories, for example, for General Category 50%, for ST/Sc and Reserved Category 40%.

Candidates must be a citizen of India, NRI, OCI.

Exam Pattern

The mode of exam is offline and has a duration of 3 hours. Candidates are given an OMR sheet bearing a unique code for each one and a question paper. The types of questions will MCQ.

Subjects for the exam are Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (Botany and Zoology). The total number of the questions is 180, each subject sharing 45 marks, including Botany and Zoology, separately.

Each of the questions carries a total of 4 marks, which means the total marks of the paper are 720. For every correct question, the candidate is awarded four marks, and for every incorrect question, one mark is deducted. There is no negative marking for unattempted questions.

NEET exams are conducted in 11 languages English, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, and Assamese.

How to prepare

A good preparation strategy is always helpful while writing exams like NEET. Studying hard is always important, but what else is more important is studying smart. 

Covering the basics of the syllabus, not avoiding your strong areas to focus on the weak area is important too. Maintain a timetable and follow it religiously.

Take care of your health, both physical and mental. Always do your best, but remember that every day you ‘the best’ will be different from the previous day. Take time for revision, and take an occasional mock test, which is available, both online and offline.

Mock tests are the best way to tell you if you are strong and weak in some areas, it will tell you where you need to improve.

Most importantly, keep yourself updated on the changing exam patterns, if any. Checking previous years question paper will go a long way.

What book you choose to follow and study should always be a personal choice, but it is very important that you thoroughly go through the books you studied during the 11th and 12th.

What else to know

Some of the other facts you should know about NEET is that:

• There is no limit on the number of attempts for the exam; you can appear as much as you want.
• Delhi has the highest percentage of students clearing NEET.
• There is a dress code for the exam day, and you should follow it, as mentioned in the instructions.