The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is the single gateway to all MBBS and BDS admissions in India; the exceptions being, admissions to the AIIMS and JIPMER institutions. NEET admits candidates to seats in the All India Quota (15 per cent of seats in Government colleges), the State Quota (remaining 85 per cent of seats in Government colleges in each state) and also to all seats available under Private (Management run) colleges. Hence, it is clear that every candidate aspiring to be a medical professional will be appearing for NEET. Last year about 11.3 lakh candidates appeared for the exam, of which 6.11 lakh qualified.
THE PERCENTILE MYSTERY:
Before getting to tactics of preparation, one needs to understand the criteria of 'qualifying in NEET'. To qualify, a general (unreserved) candidate should score above 50 percentile of the candidates appearing for NEET (40 for OBC/ SC/ ST and 45 for UR-PH). This simply means the examiners will arrange all candidates with the scores in the descending order and draw a line above exactly half the number of candidates from below.
To throw little bit more clarity on this, look at this data: in NEET 2017, the topper scored 697 marks out of 720; but the qualifying score for general candidates was 131 marks out of 720. Roughly, scoring above 19-20 per cent of marks in the NEET examination makes you 'qualified' in NEET.
DIFFERING CRITERIA:
Having said that, let me give you a word of caution - there are other criteria for eligibility as far as admissions through NEET are concerned. Criteria also differ for central quota seats and state quota seats. State eligibility may also be a criterion in some private medical colleges. In short, qualifying for the NEET examination alone does not guarantee an admission to the MBBS/BDS courses. So you need to carefully go through all eligibility criteria as prescribed by your state/ the college where you intend to secure admission.
NEET - THE PAPER
NEET is a three-hour examination with 180 Multiple Choice Questions spread evenly across four areas of Science - Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. You can get a bilingual paper if you have opted for it in your application. Each question gives four choices to choose the most appropriate answer from. The questions are arranged in subject wise order, but the question paper does not exactly part the questions into each subject area. The first thing that should strike you is that you have to answer 180 questions in 180 minutes; do the math - you get to spend one minute per question.
Also Read: NEET 2018 Syllabus