The Supreme Court of India, on 28th April 2016, approved NEET or National Eligibility cum Entrance Test as the single examination for entry into all MBBS and BDS seats. There were a series of protests, amendments and revisions after the order was passed.
The final decision is that there will be one common exam for medical and dental courses from next year. This measure will also cover private colleges. Lok Sabha passed this bill on 18th July 2016, while the Rajya Sabha passed it on 1st August 2016. It was finally approved by Honourable President Pranab Mukherjee on 8th August 2016.
What’s in it for the students?
For starters, there is no change in the pattern of AIPMT (All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Test) and NEET. There is no change in the syllabus either.
The test this year was conducted in 2 rounds. The first round was conducted on 1st May 2016, which just saw AIPMT 2016 re-branded as NEET 2016. The paper pattern, sections and time duration was exactly the same.
The second round of NEET 2016 was conducted on 24th July 2016. This round was held specifically for those students who were not appearing for AIPMT, but were focused only on state-level entrance exams like the Kerala Medical Entrance (KEAM 2016) or exams of deemed and private medical universities like Manipal University (MU-OET 2016). Such students got the opportunity to apply for NEET again.
The combined results are expected to be released on August 17, 2016.
Is there a change in the syllabus?
NEET follows the NCERT syllabus, just like AIPMT. After the unification of curriculum across the states boards last year, there isn’t much difference in the syllabus. This newly instated exam comprises three sections:
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology (Botany and Zoology)
Anything to worry about?
The Supreme Court has made it very clear that NEET will supersede all medical entrance exams conducted by state governments, private and deemed universities for medical, dental and allied streams. So, Karnataka CET, COMEDK, Kerala Entrance, WB JEE, Manipal entrance, VIT entrance, etc., stand superseded.
Tamil Nadu never held entrance exams for admission to their medical colleges. The state always considered the results of the Higher Secondary Board for admissions. The students of this state may find the idea of an entrance exam novel and challenging. The other factor is that NEET is an objective-based (MCQ) exam, whereas students are used to answering subjective-based questions in their board exams.
Having said that, students will be relieved to hear that only the name of the exam has changed – not the pattern, nor the syllabus. So, their focus should be on the NCERT books as it has always been for AIPMT. The other positive outcome of this development is that there will be more seats up for grab. Earlier, there were only 2000-2500 seats available through the AIPMT every year. Now, students have gained access to a lot of medical colleges that did not come under the gamut of AIPMT.
So, students need not worry about NEET as it is a good thing to happen. They are advised to focus all their energy in preparing thoroughly and doing thier best. Toppr, India’s #1 app for medical entrance preparation, is at hand for students who want to do well in NEET by bringing them the complete package, with great study material, an unlimited question bank, doubt clearance by experts and All India Test Series!
