NEET 2025: The Secret Of Paper Attempting Strategy

NEET 2025: The Secret Of Paper Attempting Strategy

One of the toughest and most competitive medical entrance examinations in India is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, shortly called NEET. This examination opens the gateway to prestigious courses in medical education, such as MBBS and BDS in government and private institutions, and AYUSH.

Conducted once a year by the NTA, the NEET conducts tests in four subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. With a total of 180 questions within a time frame of three hours and 20 minutes, the pressure is always high and how one attempts this paper matters in securing a very good score to get into the top rank.

NEET 2024: Cutoff (OBC, SC, ST & General Category)

NEET 2024 Admission Guidance: Personalised | Study Abroad

NEET 2025: Syllabus | Most Scoring concepts | NEET PYQ's (2015-24)

NEET PYQ's & Solutions: Physics | Chemistry | Biology

We bring you, here, insider tips and strategies shared by NEET toppers and experts to help you approach the exam with confidence and precision, boosting your chances of success.

Below are some of the tips which must be followed during the examination process.

1. Stay calm and composed: This is a prerequisite for almost every examination. Staying calm ensures that students don't lose their temper if they are not able to solve some of the questions during the examination. Also, this helps in avoiding silly mistakes like incorrect reading of the question, incorrect interpretation and calculation mistakes, etc. Get a good night’s sleep on the night before the exam, do yoga and meditation and carry a wristwatch to keep track of time.

2. Self-belief and confidence: Students need to understand that confidence acts as a catalyst for performance in an examination. Trust your preparation, hard work and capability and do not undermine yourself by thinking of topics you could not prepare well. Remember that having self-belief and confidence works in your favour.

3. Spend some time analysing the question paper: As soon as a student gets the question paper, he or she must quickly go through the paper to assess the difficulty level of the paper and glance at the questions to determine which ones seem easy in nature.

4. Start answering the portion which seems most comfortable: Every student has a different comfort level with different subjects and topics. Hence it is advisable to attempt questions from the portion in which you feel more comfortable to maximise the marks at the beginning of the examination itself. This also helps in boosting confidence. This is an integral part of the time management strategy.

• Especially in NEET papers, most of the toppers suggest that students should attempt questions from Biology and Inorganic Chemistry first as they are factual, generally easy and consume less time.

• Read every option carefully, sometimes the solution is hidden in options only.

• Don't waste more than a stipulated time on a particular question, move quickly to a different question if you've got stuck and not able to figure out the answer to a question.

5. Stay focused: Always stay focused, attentive and careful while answering the questions and bubbling the OMR sheet.

• While filling out OMR, if you commit a mistake, try to remain calm and focus on the rest of the paper. Don't panic at that time as this might hamper performance in upcoming questions.

6. Highlight or circle the keywords: While reading the question, highlight the keywords to make sure that you interpret the question correctly.

• There are some words like EXCEPT, NOT CORRECT, OTHER THAN, etc. that need attention as sometimes these words are missed while reading the questions.

7. Maintain speed and accuracy: Considering the high cutoff in NEET, speed and accuracy are non-negotiable. Hence students must practice a lot of mock tests to get the desired speed and accuracy in the actual examination.

Optimize Your NEET Score: Importance of Time Management

Effective time management is the cornerstone of success in NEET. Given the time constraints and the need to answer 180 questions, it’s essential to practice managing your time during preparation. Allocate specific time slots for each subject and stick to them during mock tests. This approach will not only help you build speed but also enhance your accuracy under exam conditions. Incorporating time management strategies in your practice sessions can significantly improve your performance on exam day.

In NEET, there are various subjects, hence there are some subject-wise tips that need to be followed to cater for the demands of each subject in their respective manner. Let's discuss them one by one.

BIOLOGY

Most questions are factual and require memorization. Hence questions from Biology need to be read properly and follow all the guidelines discussed above to minimise the mistakes while attempting the paper. In biology questions, words like EXCEPT, NOT CORRECT, and OTHER THAN need extra attention.

Important Topics For Biology

• Photosynthesis In Higher Plants
• Breathing And Exchange Of Gases
• Neural Control And Coordination
• Reproduction

CHEMISTRY

> PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

This part consists mainly of numerical-based questions which involve mathematical calculations, hence try to attempt simple questions first from this part which involves fewer calculations. Try to observe the options, as sometimes approximation in calculation can help in finding out the solution in less time.

> INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Most of the questions from organic chemistry are from NCERT and previous year's papers which are factual in nature. Hence, try to solve these questions fast as it requires less time.

> ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Concepts are repeated in this section, questions are based on NCERt only, read the question carefully and use the concept of organic chemistry. Also, in organic chemistry, catalysts Temperature, and pressure conditions play a vital role. Hence try to take care of such things in the examination.

PHYSICS

Questions are diverse, ranging from theory to numerical. Use the concepts to solve the questions, check units while solving a question, and if you are stuck on any question, try to do dimensional analysis from options or do reverse engineering which means use each option to verify the question. There will be one option out of 4 which will satisfy the question and that will be the correct option only. This trick can be used as a method of last resort when all other methods fail. To understand such tricks, one must solve the previous year's question papers religiously.

Right, Mindset and Strategy during an examination is of utmost importance to crack an examination as difficult as NEET. Hence Above mentioned Tips must be followed by every serious aspirant to enhance the chances of selection.