After a long wait, the NEET UG 2021 exam was successfully conducted by NTA today. The duration of the examination was from 2 PM to 5 PM. However, with the completion of the test, students will now have to wait for the results. Although no official date has been announced by the agency, it is likely that the results will be available by mid-October.
The information bulletin of NEET 2021 states that the agency will evaluate the answer sheets using a standard procedure and then display the result on neet.nta.nic.in. Thereafter, the students can download the score cards from the same website. This year, it is very likely that the results of NEET-UG will be declared by the third week of October, 2021. In 2020, the NEET examination was held on September 13, 2020 while the results were declared on October 16, 2020. This means that the results were announced 33 days after the examination was held. Similarly, in 2019, the examination was held on May 05, 2019 and the results were available on June 05, 2019, i.e. 31 days after the examination.
Back in 2018, NEET UG was held on May 06, 2018 and the results were announced on June 04, 2018. This means that the results were declared 29 days after the entrance test was held.
Based on the previous year trends of releasing the results, this year, the results are expected within 30 to 33 days from today. In that case, candidates are likely to get the same within October 12, 2021 to October 15, 2021.
Meanwhile, they are advised to keep an eye on neet.nta.nic.in to get regular updates.
Coming to the previous year cut-offs, given below are the cut-offs from 2016 to 2020.
| Category | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| UR | 720-147 | 701-134 | 691-119 | 697-131 | 685-468 |
| OBC | 146-113 | 133-107 | 118-96 | 130-107 | 468-465 |
| SC | 146-113 | 133-107 | 118-96 | 130-107 | 468-352 |
| ST | 146-113 | 133-107 | 118-96 | 130-107 | 466-303 |
| UR-PH | 146-129 | 133-120 | 118-107 | 130-118 | 466-214 |
| OBC-PH | 128-113 | 119-107 | 106-96 | 130-107 | 213-210 |
| SC-PH | 128-113 | 119-107 | 106-96 | 130-107 | 209-130 |
| ST-PH | 128-113 | 119-107 | 106-96 | 130-107 | 213-118 |
The cut-offs for the UR category have risen over the last five years. However, the cut-offs from 2017 to 2020 of all the categories, except UR, are less when compared to that of 2016. In addition to that, the difference between the cut-off ranges of UR category, from 2017 to 2020, is quite wide. This year, it is likely that the cut-off for UR category is going to be above 720, while that for OBC, SC, ST and UR-PH categories is likely to be above 150. For OBC-PH, SC-PH and ST-PH, the cut-off is expected to be more than 135.
As per the revised exam pattern, all four papers for NEET 2021 had two sections namely ‘Section A’ and ‘Section B’. The first section or Section A comprises of 35 questions while Section B has 15 questions. However, students had the liberty to answer any 10 questions from Section B. Altogether, the total number of questions remain 180. This free choice of answering any 10 questions can also impact this year’s NEET cut-off. With more options, it is very likely that the students will go for the questions that are more confident about than the others. As a result, the chances of scoring high remain more. Nevertheless, candidates must wait for the official cut-off list to be released and not make any assumptions based on these previous cut-offs. Please note that these cut-offs are only for reference.
