Syllabus
NEET PG — What the syllabus covers
- Pre-clinical subjects
- Anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Together a modest share of the paper, but foundational — clinical questions frequently rest on physiological or anatomical reasoning even when they do not ask about it directly.
- Para-clinical subjects
- Pathology, pharmacology, microbiology and forensic medicine. A substantial share, and among the highest-yield areas relative to the study time required. Pathology and pharmacology in particular reward systematic revision.
- Clinical subjects — the major share
- Medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics carry the largest weighting. Questions are typically case-based, asking for the most likely diagnosis, the next investigation, or the appropriate management step.
- Other clinical subjects
- Ophthalmology, ENT, dermatology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, anaesthesia, radiology and community medicine. Individually smaller, but collectively significant — and several of them are short enough to cover thoroughly, which makes them efficient marks.
- Community medicine and recent guidelines
- National health programmes, biostatistics, epidemiology and public health, alongside awareness of updated clinical guidelines. This area rewards being current rather than being thorough.
The subjects most often under-prepared are the short clinical ones — ophthalmology, ENT, dermatology, psychiatry, forensic medicine. Each is small enough to be covered properly in a couple of weeks, and collectively they account for a meaningful block of the paper. Candidates who concentrate exclusively on medicine and surgery leave those marks available to others.
Reading the syllabus as a weighting problem
- The major clinical subjects carry the paper — medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics between them supply the largest share of questions, and they are also the subjects most candidates are still using clinically.
- The para-clinical subjects are the most question-dense per hour — pathology, pharmacology and microbiology reward systematic revision more directly than the clinical subjects do, and they are where a candidate short of time often gains most.
- The short clinical subjects are collectively significant — ophthalmology, ENT, dermatology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, anaesthesia and radiology are individually small and quick to cover, and together they represent a meaningful block that is routinely left to last and then left undone.
- The pre-clinical subjects are foundational rather than heavy — anatomy, physiology and biochemistry supply fewer questions directly but underpin the clinical reasoning the paper rewards.
The practical planning consequence is to start where the return per hour is highest rather than where the marks are heaviest. The para-clinical subjects and the short clinical ones are finite, systematically revisable and frequently under-prepared, which makes them a better place to begin than medicine — a subject you will be revising continuously anyway and that will absorb any amount of time you give it.
Community medicine and current guidelines earn their place
National health programmes, biostatistics and epidemiology supply a reliable set of questions, and awareness of updated clinical guidance appears regularly. Both are learnable from defined sources, and both are commonly skipped by candidates concentrating on the major clinical subjects.
