National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, commonly known as NEET, will be conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 3, 2020. Along with the exam date, NTA has also announced the NEET 2020 important dates relating to online form, admit card and result. NEET 2020 application form will be released on December 2, 2019. The last date to register for NEET exam is December 31, 2019.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced that NEET will be the only entrance test for admissions to 1205 AIIMS and 200 JIPMER MBBS seats from 2020. Candidates applying for NEET will be vying for 76,928 MBBS seats in in 532 medical colleges and 26,949 BDS seats in 313 dental colleges across India. NEET saw 15,19,375 registered candidates in 2019 as compared to 13,26,725 candidates in 2018. 

NEET correction window will be available tentatively by January 6. NTA will release NEET admit card from March 27, 2020. Candidates appearing for NEET have to answer 180 multiple choice questions from Physics, Chemistry and Biology (Botany+Zoology) in three hours. Answer Key of NEET will be released by NTA by May 25 (tentatively) and candidates can estimate their probable scores with its help.

NTA will declare NEET result 2020 by June 4. Only candidates who score the specified qualifying cutoff of NEET 2020 will be eligible to apply for counselling. The authorities will release a merit list mentioning the scores in percentile, qualifying marks and the All India ranks of candidates who have qualified. In 2019, about 7,97,042 candidates out of 14,10,755 qualified for counselling and admissions.

NEET Counselling will be of two types

• All India Counselling to be held by DGHS for 15% of seats in all Govt colleges, 100% in Deemed/Central universities and ESIC and AFMS colleges. DGHS will be only conducting the counselling for the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC).
• State Counselling to be held by state medical councils for 85% of seats in government colleges, 100% in state universities and private colleges.

An aspirant who applies for NEET has to meet the eligibility criteria of NEET which specifies the academic qualifications, age limit, pass percentage, nationality etc that are mandatory to appear for the exam. The NEET eligibility criteria are based on regulations of Graduate Medical Education 1997 Act. Know the NEET 2020 eligibility criteria below

• Nationality:- Indian Nationals, NRIs, PIOs, OCIs and Foreign Nationals are eligible to take NEET.

• Age Limit:- Candidates who are 17 years and above as on the date of admissions or by December 31, 2020 are eligible to apply for NEET. There is no upper age limit as of now.

• Qualifying Exam:- Candidate must have passed Class 12 or equivalent examination with Chemistry, Biology and Physics as mandatory subjects. They must have scored a minimum of 50% in aggregate and in each subject too. OBC/ SC/ST candidates must have scored a minimum of 40% while PwD candidates must score at least 45% in the qualifying exam.

• Number of Attempts:- There is no limit to the number of attempts for NEET until specified.

Mode of Application : Online

Mode of Payment : Net Banking | Credit Card | Debit Card

National Testing Agency (NTA) will release NEET 2020 application in online mode only on December 2, 2019. The last date to register for NEET is December 31, 2019. Candidates must upload scanned images of their photograph and signature along with the NEET application form. Payment is both online and offline. Steps to fill the NEET 2020 application form are:

How to Fill NEET Application Form?

Step 1 - Registration:  Candidates must first register for NEET by entering the following details

• Candidate's name
• Mother's name
• Father's name
• Date of Birth
• Gender
• Nationality
• State of Eligibility
• Category
• Person with Disabilities
• Identification Type
• Identification Number
• Mobile Number
• Email ID
• Create Password 
• OTP Verification
  

After submission of the above details, a provisional NEET application number is generated along with the password for login purposes.

Step 2 - Filling NEET Application Form: Candidates must login and fill the following-

• Personal Details 
• Place of Birth
• Choice of Medium of Question Paper
• Choice of Examination Centre - four exam cities have to be chosen in order of preference
• Academic Details (Class 10th or equivalent)
• Academic Details (Class 11th or equivalent)
• Academic Details (Class 12th or equivalent)
• Permanent Address
• Correspondence Address
• Details of Parents and Guardian
• Dress Code Assent
• Security Pin

Step 3 - Review and Final Submission: Candidates must thoroughly review all details before submission.

Step 4 - Upload Photograph and Signature:  Candidates must upload the scanned images along with the application of NEET as specified below.

• Photograph: Must be postcard size picture in a white background with the Name of the candidate and date written on the photograph. The Size must be 10 Kb to 100 Kb and format should be JPG
• Signature: Candidates must sign with a black pen on a white background in JPG format with a file size of 3 Kb to 20 Kb

Step 4 - Pay NEET 2020 application fee: The details of fee payable and mode are given below

Step 5 - Take a printout of confirmation page: Use the download option to download the confirmation page and save it for future reference.

NEET Correction Window

In case candidates have made mistakes in their NEET application form, they can correct the same. The NEET correction window will be available from January 6, 2020 (tentatively). Mistakes in all field can be corrected. No request for further corrections will be entertained once this NEET correction window is closed.

Application Fees

Having applied for NEET exam, the first step would be to start preparing for the test. Since the competition is high and seats less, qualifying with a very good NEET score will require some amount of good preparation. While there are no hard fast rules to crack NEET, some basic guidelines have to be followed to qualify in NEET 2020 with a high score. some important rules to know are:

Understand the NEET Syllabus - This will allow candidates to know which chapters they have to study in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. This will also allow them to have an idea of the depth of the topics and syllabus to be covered

Know the NEET Exam Pattern - Well, knowing how many questions to answer, time limit within which to answer the questions, marks awarded, negative marking if any - these are some tips that will ensure that candidates are well conversant with the exam and will know exactly how things will be in the actual exam.

A timetable just for NEET - Having a daily schedule for NEET with an exclusive timetable that allows candidates to keep track of the levels of their preparation will do wonders for preparation purposes. This timetable should allow for week wise and month wise strategy for preparation. Adhering to this is an important factor for success in NEET.

List of books to refer for NEET - No doubt that NCERT strengthens the base and concepts of students, it is also important to have other books that help in cracking NEET.

Best books for NEET Biology

• Objective Biology (volumes 1 & 2) by GR Bathla 
• Biology Classes 11 and 12 (Volume 1 & 2) by Pradeep Publications
• Objective Biology (Volume 1, 2, and 3 along with Practice Papers) by Dinesh Publications
• A Class Book for Botany by A C Dutta
• Objective Biology (volumes 1 and 2) by Trueman Publications

Best Books for NEET Chemistry

• Physical Chemistry by O.P. Tandon
• Oxford’s Organic Chemistry by Jonathan Clayden, Nick Greeves
• Concise Inorganic Chemistry by J D Lee
• MTG’s Objective NCERT at your fingertips by MTG Editorial Board
• Modern’s ABC of Chemistry of Classes 11 and 12 (volumes 1 and 2) by S.P. Jauhar

Best Books for NEET Physics 

• Concepts of Physics, part 1 and 2 by H C Verma
• Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick and Walker
• Objective Physics for medical entrance examination (volumes 1 and 2) by D C Pandey
• NCERT Exemplar Class 11 and 12
• Physics MCQ by D Mukherjee

Mock Tests and Sample Papers of NEET - Studying alone will not help. Practice helps perfect it. So the past NEET question papers, mock tests and sample papers are good tools for this. Candidates can understand how best to strategize, improve their speed and manage their time on the NEET exam day.

Stress Free NEET Preparation - While it is a fact that the immense competition builds on the stress on any NEET aspirant, it is also true that a correct plan will reduce some of  the stress. Candidates must keep to the timetable but also give time to their minds to relax. No one can study all day long and this is something that needs to e understood well. So some time to relax with hobbies, activities like singing, listening to music, playing a game or two, spending time with friends etc is equally important.

As per NTA, NEET 2020 is a pen and paper based exam held in three hours where candidates have to mark their answers in an OMR sheet. NEET question paper will contain questions from Biology (Botany+Zoology), Physics and Chemistry of 10+2 standard. The detailed exam pattern of NEET 2020 is as follows.

NEET Exam Pattern

Subject-wise breakup of NEET 2020 question Paper

One important exercise in NEET preparation is the use of mock tests. One can only perfect what one has learnt by practising with past year question papers, mock tests and such. NTA has released the mock tests for NEET subject wise. Candidates can practise with these mock tests of NEET either on the NTA website or they can even download the tests to practise at home. NTA has also facilitated practising on NEET sample papers at TPCs which are the 2900 plus test practice centres set up at the nearest colleges in most towns and cities.

Candidates wishing to practice at the NEET TPCs must register and book the slot and go to the college  to practise. The questions asked in these mock tests for NEET will be based on the past question papers of the exam. Candidates can check and practice on the NTA website by clicking here. They must enter the exam which is NEET and the subject. The login credentials are dummy and hence candidates must press the "enter" key to start the NEET mock test for the chosen subject.

The mock tests of NEET are only for practise hence scores are not given out. However, the feel and look of the NEET exam can be gauged with the help of these tests.

Candidates can download NEET admit card from March 27, 2020 at ntaneet.nic.in in online mode. Candidates have to login their application number and password to download the admit card of NEET 2020. The NEET 2020 admit card is mandatory to appear for the exam and is required at the examination hall on the exam day. 

How to download the NEET admit card?

• Click on the candidate login
• Enter the application number  and password
• Download the admit card and check the details
• Print the same if details are correct.

Details mentioned in the admit card:

The details mentioned in the NEET 2020 admit card include application number, name, father’s name, mother’s name, birth date, gender, category, residential address and medium of the question paper. In addition, the NEET roll number, exam centre details and test schedule will also be mentioned.

What to carry along with the NEET 2020 admit card?

• A photograph mjust be carried to the exam hall. This must match the one uploaded with the NEET application form as it will be pasted in the attendance sheet at the exam hall
• A valid original Photo ID - PAN Card/ Passport/ Ration Card/ Aadhaar Card/ Any Govt ID
• PwD certificate, (only for PwD candidates)

What to do in case of discrepancy in NEET admit card 2020?

Candidates must intimate the authorities if they find there is any discrepancy in the details mentioned on the NEET 2020 admit card. They must mail their details along with the NEET confirmation page so that NTA can rectify the discrepancies.

Leading coaching Institutes like Allen, Akash, Resonance will release NEET Answer Key for various codes like P, Q, R, S (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) on May 3 after the completion of the entrance exam. National Testing Agency will release the provisional NEET answer key 2020 tentatively by May 25. NTA will also release the response sheets of the candidates to cross check with the answer key and estimate the probable score. To download the response sheet and answer key of NEET, candidates will have to login through their credentials. 

Any objection to a question or answer given in the NEET provisional answer key can be raised by candidates witin a given time. They will have to raise their challenge to NEET 2020 answer key through the online provision made by NTA after paying Rs 1000 per question. Candidates are required to submit the proof of the same. The amount paid to challenge the answer key of NEET will be refunded if the claim of the candidates is found to be tru else it is non-refundable.

After considering all the challenges and objections, NTA will release the final answer key for all the paper codes tentatively by June 4, 2020.

National Testing Agency will declare NEET 2020 result by June 4 in online mode that can be downloaded by candidates by entering their NEET roll number and date of birth. The result of NEET 2020 will be released in the form of a scorecard that has to be downloaded and kept safe since it will not be sent via any other means. The NEET result will be required during counselling. The steps to download the result of NEET is as below.

How to download NEET 2020 result?

• Click on the link given on official website
• Enter the NEET Roll Number (as given on admit card) and date of birth in dd/mm/yyyy format
• The NEET scorecard will be displayed
• Download the same and check details for accuracy

Details mentioned on NEET Scorecard

• Candidate's personal details like roll number, application number, name, mother’s name and father’s name etc. 
• Marks obtained by the candidate in total
• Subject wise and overall percentile score 
• NEET All India Rank 
• Cutoff percentile score and marks (lowest and highest) for each category
• Details of total number of candidates who appeared and qualified

NEET 2019 result statistics

NEET Toppers - Last Year

To qualify in NEET, candidates must score equal to or above the qualifying NEET cutoff. This is the minimum percentile that is pre-decided by MCI and stipulated in the Graduate Medical Education Regulations (1997) as the score which a candidate must obtain to be eligible for admissions. 

The NEET qualifying percentile has been specified category wise and can be summarized as given in the table below. To aid candidates, the actual marks secured in the past years have also been mentioned such that candidates get an idea of how much to score to qualify in NEET 2020.

To note is the point that the NEET cut off marks will be announced after the result is declared on June 4, 2020. The cutoff score is determined on the number of applicants, difficulty levels of the NEET question paper, seats available and past cutoff trends. 

Previous years' NEET qualifying percentile

Mode of Counselling: Online, Offline

Since medical colleges come under the central authorities as well as the state ones, NEET counselling is broadly of two types. One is the All India counselling conducted by DGHS for 15% of the seats in the government colleges in the country, deemed and central university seats as well as ESIC and AFMS seats. The second is the state counselling held by each individual state medical council for the rest of the 85% of the seats in the government colleges, state run universities and the private medical colleges of the state. Only students who qualify in NEET will be eligible for the counselling subject to certain regulations.

NEET counselling is generally held in two rounds followed by a mop-up round for any vacant seats left after the first two rounds. Candidates must apply for the NEET counselling as per their eligibility. An important point to note is that all candidates who qualify in NEET 2020 will be eligible to apply for the All India NEET counselling. However, for the respective state counselling of NEET, the admissions will be open to factors like domicile, residency in state etc. Candidates must check whether they meet the state admission criteria before applying for the NEET counselling of the state.

NEET seat allotment will be based on the All India Rank of the applicants, choice of colleges entered, seat availability, reservation criteria etc.

NEET Counselling guidelines