Direct General of the National Testing Agency (NTA) recently announced that the National Eligibility Entrance Examination (NEET) 2021 exam schedule shall be announced this week. Moreover, as per reports, the official also confirmed that NEET 2021 shall be held only once. Examination and registration details of the medical entrance shall be disclosed on the official website ntaneet.nic.in. According to Mr Joshi, aspirants shall be able to register for the national-level entrance exam after the date is announced and application forms are released by NTA.
Lakhs of students have been ardently waiting for months together to know the schedule of NEET 2021. There were also reports that the medical entrance exam shall be conducted twice this year. This speculation gained momentum after NTA decided to conduct JEE Main 2021 four times in 2021. The decision for doing so was to help students increase their marks and counter all difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Putting all rumours to rest, Mr Joshi announced that NEET 2021 shall be conducted only once. The incessant wait shall also end this week as NTA is likely to release the official examination schedule for the medical entrance exam. As per changes introduced last year, NEET is currently the only entrance exam conducted for admission to undergraduate medical and dental programmes. While NEET-UG is conducted by NTA, NEET-PG is organised by the National Board of Education (NBE).
The Education Minister, Mr Ramesh Prokhriyal ‘Nishank’ had earlier stated that the government was looking into the possibility of conducting NEET multiple times this year. The minister further clarified that the exam syllabus for the entrance exam is decided by NTA irrespective of changes introduced in the board syllabus. Moreover, there shall be no changes in the NEET 2021 exam pattern.
NEET 2021 shall be conducted in the offline mode and a total of 1248 colleges shall be participating in the admission process. While the exam is going to be conducted once, students are expected to get some relief due to internal choices in the paper. As per reports, the entrance exam is likely to contain more questions and hence, availability of internal options similar to JEE Main 2021.
Previously, NEET comprised a total of 180 questions for a maximum of 720 marks. Out of 180 questions, the Biology section comprised of 90 questions while the Chemistry and Physics sections contained 45 questions. Each question was allotted 4 marks and 1 mark was deducted for every wrong answer. While NTA is yet to comment on this speculation, reports suggest that students shall be given internal choices this year.
