22Sep 2026
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Entrance exams: what is live
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Entrance Exams
Medical
Medical entrance in India divides cleanly into two levels. NEET UG is the single entrance for undergraduate medical, dental, AYUSH and allied programmes — no recognised college conducts its own. At postgraduate level, NEET PG covers admission generally and INI-CET covers the Institutes of National Importance.
The two levels are so different in character that grouping them can mislead. NEET UG is a school-syllabus precision test taken by millions; the postgraduate examinations are clinical papers taken by doctors, with question formats, time rules and marking schemes that have no undergraduate counterpart.
Entrance exams · checked 19 September 2026
Entrance exams this month, from the official portals
Notifications, application windows, exam dates, answer keys and results as the conducting bodies published them, each with its source and a link to the exam guide.
The two levels
Undergraduate and postgraduate medical entrance
| Exam | For | Character | Marking |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEET UG | MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and allied programmes | Class 11 and 12 science, closely tied to NCERT | +4 / −1 |
| NEET PG | MD, MS and PG diploma programmes | Clinical vignettes across the MBBS curriculum | +4 / −1 |
| INI-CET | AIIMS, PGIMER, JIPMER, NIMHANS and SCTIMST | The same curriculum probed further | +1 / −1/3 |
The marking difference between NEET PG and INI-CET is worth pausing on. A wrong answer costs five marks relative to a right one in NEET PG and one and a third in INI-CET, which means the guessing threshold should be quite different between them. Candidates who prepare for both and apply one discipline to both leave marks unclaimed in INI-CET.
2026 cycle
Medical entrance notifications 2026: where each examination stands
Checked 15 September 2026 against neet.nta.nic.in, nta.ac.in, natboard.edu.in and aiimsexams.ac.in.
| Examination | Notification | Examination | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEET UG 2026 | 8 February 2026; applications to 8 March | Held 3 May, cancelled 12 May after a malpractice investigation; re-conducted 21 June 2026 at no fee | Result 16 July 2026: 19,99,895 appeared, 11,21,185 qualified; cut-off 213 (UR/EWS), 177 (OBC/SC/ST); MCC and state counselling under way |
| NEET 2027 | Expected February 2027 | Expected first Sunday of May 2027 on the 180-question, +4/−1 pattern | Syllabus and bulletin awaited on neet.nta.nic.in |
| NEET PG 2026 | 1 July 2026; applications to 21 July | Held 30 August 2026, single shift, 2,65,980 appeared; Jaipur re-examination 5 September | Result by 30 September 2026; internship cut-off 30 September |
| INI-CET July 2026 session | 19 March 2026; registration 28 March – 25 April | Held 16 May 2026 | Result 23 May; seat allocation through mock, two rounds and an open round |
| INI-CET January 2027 session | To be notified on aiimsexams.ac.in | 1 November 2026 | Result 7 November 2026 (AIIMS calendar) |
| Examination | Paper | Marking | Qualifying |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEET UG | 180 compulsory questions, 720 marks, 3 hours, pen and paper, 13 languages — Physics 45, Chemistry 45, Biology 90 | +4 / −1 | 50th percentile UR and EWS (213 in 2026); 45th UR-PwBD (194); 40th OBC, SC, ST (177) |
| NEET PG | 180 questions, 720 marks since 2026 (200 and 800 until 2025), 3 hours 30 minutes, computer-based, five locked sections of 36 questions and 42 minutes | +4 / −1 | 50th percentile General and EWS (276 in 2025); 45th General PwBD (255); 40th SC, ST, OBC (235) |
| INI-CET | 200 questions, 3 hours, computer-based, four locked parts of 50 questions and 45 minutes; single- and multiple-correct types | +1 / −1/3 | 50th percentile UR, EWS, OCI, sponsored, foreign; 45th OBC, SC, ST, PwBD |
Fees: NEET UG ₹1,700 (General), ₹1,600 (EWS and OBC-NCL), ₹1,000 (SC, ST, PwBD, third gender); NEET PG ₹3,500 and ₹2,500; INI-CET ₹4,000, ₹3,200 and nil for PwBD. NEET UG needs a candidate to be 17 by 31 December of the examination year with no upper age limit; the two postgraduate tests need an MBBS with internship completed by the cut-off each notice fixes. The exam guides below carry the full pattern tables, the 2026 result figures and cut-offs, eligibility, the procedure from form to counselling and free mock tests on the current patterns.
Undergraduate
What decides a NEET UG result
- Biology is half the paper — ninety of a hundred and eighty questions, and the most reliably scoreable half because it rewards thorough NCERT study.
- NCERT is the effective syllabus — questions in biology and inorganic chemistry frequently trace to a specific line, table or diagram caption.
- Physics is the differentiator — the section where scores vary most, and the one needing problems rather than reading.
- Ranks are compressed — so avoiding a careless error usually matters more than an extra speculative attempt.
Postgraduate
What changes at postgraduate level
The postgraduate examinations are applied rather than factual. A question presents a clinical scenario and asks for the diagnosis, the next investigation or the appropriate management — which means question practice teaches more per hour than reading does. They are also taken by doctors preparing alongside clinical work, which makes fragmented study the norm and sustained spaced revision essential rather than optional.
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Questions
Medical — FAQs
What are the medical entrance exam dates for the rest of 2026?
NEET PG 2026 has been held (30 August, with a Jaipur re-examination on 5 September) and its result is due by 30 September 2026. INI-CET for the January 2027 session is on 1 November 2026 with the result on 7 November. NEET UG 2026 is complete — the re-examination of 21 June was declared on 16 July — and MCC and state counselling are running; NEET 2027 should be notified in February 2027 for a May examination.
Will NEET 2027 be in CBT mode, and when is the NEET 2027 exam date?
Yes, on what has been said so far: the Union Education Minister announced on 15 May 2026 that NEET UG would move to a computer-based test from the 2027 cycle, NTA wrote to AICTE on 4 September 2026 to map CBT centres across the country, and the NTA Director General confirmed the switch on 14 September 2026. The exam date is not yet announced — NEET UG is not in NTA’s December-to-March calendar of 16 September — and on the 2026 timetable the syllabus and application notices are due in January and February 2027 with the examination in May 2027. The 180-question, 720-mark, +4/−1 pattern is expected to carry over; the change is the screen, the on-screen navigation and the number of shifts, which is why the free NEET mock tests here run in the CBT format.
Which medical entrance exams are there after 12th, other than NEET?
For MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS, BUMS, BSMS, B.V.Sc. and the AIIMS and JIPMER seats, none — NEET UG is the single entrance in India, and AFMC, the ESIC colleges and the deemed universities all admit through it. The separate tests that remain are for allied programmes: B.Sc. nursing at AIIMS (its own entrance), nursing and paramedical courses through state CETs such as KCET, MHT CET and the EAPCETs’ pharmacy stream, and B.Pharm through the same state tests; NEET UG scores are also used for nursing admission in several states. Abroad, the MCAT (North America), UCAT (UK and Australia) and the entrance tests of individual universities apply, and NEET qualification is required to take up a foreign MBBS seat.
What were the NEET UG 2026 cut-off and result?
The qualifying cut-off from the 21 June 2026 examination was 213 out of 720 for unreserved and EWS candidates (50th percentile), 194 for unreserved PwBD (45th) and 177 for OBC, SC, ST and their PwBD (40th), up from 144, 127 and 113 in 2025. 11,21,185 of 19,99,895 candidates qualified; two candidates scored 715 and 10,160 scored 600 or more. NEET PG 2025 cut-offs were 276, 255 and 235 out of 800, and the 2026 figures come with the result.
Is NEET the only entrance for medical admission in India?
For recognised undergraduate medical, dental, AYUSH, veterinary and allied programmes, yes — no recognised college conducts its own separate entrance. Admission is made from the NEET UG merit list through all-India quota counselling conducted centrally and state counselling conducted by each state, subject to meeting the qualifying percentile for your category. At postgraduate level, NEET PG covers admission generally while INI-CET is a separate examination for the Institutes of National Importance.
How is NEET PG different from NEET UG?
Almost entirely. NEET UG tests class 11 and 12 science factually and stays close to NCERT; NEET PG tests the whole MBBS curriculum through clinical vignettes that ask what to do next rather than what something is called. NEET PG is computer-based rather than pen-and-paper, may use time-bound sections that remove the ability to return to a question, and is taken by doctors preparing alongside clinical work rather than by students preparing full time.
Should I prepare separately for INI-CET and NEET PG?
No — prepare for both together, since the syllabus is shared, then add depth for INI-CET rather than breadth. INI-CET probes the same topics further, asking about the exception rather than the rule and the mechanism rather than the classification, so the useful addition is upgrading from summaries to standard textbooks at least in your stronger subjects. You should also recalibrate your guessing threshold, since INI-CET’s one-third deduction is far gentler than NEET PG’s.
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