NEET 2020: Exam details and Complete Guide

NEET 2020: Exam details and Complete Guide

NEET or The National Eligibility Entrance Test is an entrance examination in India for students who wish to pursue their graduate and postgraduate medical or dental studies in medical colleges within and outside India.

Over the years, NEET has turned into one of the most sought-after exams to write for every high school student in India as qualifying the NEET is now a requirement for studies within the country and abroad and is the primary gateway to several top-notch medical schools around the world. 

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has taken up the responsibility of conducting NEET from 2019 from the Central Board of secondary education (CBSE).

After the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the nation holds a common and uniform examination as the entrance exam to all medical courses of all the colleges in the country. The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) will be responsible for the admission of students to the undergraduate medical courses in all medical institutions including those that were previously under other laws. Thus, all the admissions for the AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Science) institutions and JIPMER (Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research) will be made through NEET. The eligibility criteria to appear for the NEET (UG) shall also be applicable to the candidates who desire to take admission to INIs (Institutes of National Importance) like AIIMS.

NEET 2020: More Candidates, More Seats

A 14.52% rise in the number of registered applications was seen in NEET 2019, which is expected to rise further for NEET 2020 given the fresh inclusion of AIIMS/JIPMER in the list of NEET-based institutes. It was proposed in the National Medical Commission Bill of 2019 that NEET should be the single, entry-level examination for medical aspirants in India to pursue their medical education.

The INIs recorded around 5 lakh registrations for admission to 1,205 seats of AIIMS and 200 seats of JIPMER in the 2019 examinations. Taking this into consideration, the registrations for NEET 2020 are expected to rise by the same proportion with an addition to the number of medical seats by around 1,405.

NEET 2020: Key Points

1.  On Monday, December 2, 2019, the National Testing Agency opened the window for NEET 2020 registrations, at 4 PM.
2. The last day for registration is December 31, 2019, while the last day for payment of fee is January 1, 2020.
3. Admit cards for the exam will be released from March 27, 2020.
4. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test will be conducted on May 03, 2020 from 2 PM to 5 PM.
5. The examination will be conducted offline in pen-and-paper mode with a total of 180 questions.
6. Each correct answer would award the candidate 4 marks while every wrong answer would deduct 1 mark. Therefore, the total achievable marks for NEET are 720.
7. For the 2020 session, the city of Leh (Ladakh) has been added to the list of cities hosting the examination.
8. The numbers of seats open for admission via NEET 2020 are as follows -
   • 75,893 for MBBS
   • 26,693 for BDS
   • 1,205 in AIIMS
   • 200 in JIPMER
9. The result for NEET 2020 is expected to be released on June 4, 2020, which will be followed by counselling sessions from the second week of June 2020. 

NEET 2020: Language Preference

NEET is conducted all across India in 11 languages (2 national languages and 9 regional languages) including Hindi, English, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Marathi, and Kannada. Looking into the statistics for the year 2019, 79.31% of total candidates opted for English as a language while Hindi was chosen by 11.84% candidates. The remaining 8.86% opted for regional languages. 

The Information Bulletin for NEET 2020 with all guidelines has so far been released in 7 languages - Assamese, English, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Urdu. The official NTA website has also released a list of  155 cities that will be holding the examination on May 03, 2020. 

Registering for NEET 2020: What’s New?

• To register for NEET 2020, candidates are required to upload a postcard size image (file size: 10-100kb) with a white background. 
• Additionally, the candidate must have his/her name and date printed below the image. 
• The signature file (file size: 3-20kb) of the candidate must be in black on a white background. 
• As an added measure for better scanning of applicants, it has been made mandatory that the students will have to upload their Class Xth certificates (file size: 100-400kb)

Qualifying NEET 2020

To qualify NEET 2020 for admission, the following criteria have been set -