NEET-PG and Medical Postgraduate Education

NEET-PG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses) is the single national exam that MBBS doctors take to get admission into postgraduate medical courses such as MD (Doctor of Medicine), MS (Master of Surgery) and PG Diploma. It is conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), which works under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Your NEET-PG rank decides which college and which branch (for example, Medicine, Surgery, Radiology or Anatomy) you can get.

Why does India need one national PG exam?

Before a common test, many states, private colleges and deemed universities ran their own entrance exams. A doctor had to write many exams, pay many fees and travel across the country. Some private colleges were accused of selling seats in exchange for big donations, called "capitation fees". One common exam with one merit list makes admissions fairer, cheaper for students and harder to manipulate.

Where did it come from?

• In 2010, the Medical Council of India (MCI), the old regulator, notified a common entrance test for UG and PG medical seats.
• In July 2013, the Supreme Court struck down NEET in Christian Medical College, Vellore v. Union of India, saying the MCI did not have the power to impose it.
• In April 2016, the Supreme Court recalled (cancelled) that 2013 judgment, and NEET came back.
• In 2016, Parliament amended the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 to give NEET a clear legal base.
• The National Medical Commission Act, 2019 replaced the MCI with the NMC and kept NEET as the common entrance route.
• The 2019 Act also planned a National Exit Test (NExT), a common final-year MBBS exam meant to serve as the licence to practise and the basis for PG admission. Until NExT starts, NEET-PG continues.

How does the exam work?

• It is a computer-based test with 200 multiple-choice questions, for 800 marks.
• A correct answer gives +4 marks; a wrong answer gives −1 mark (negative marking). An unattempted question gives 0. Because of negative marking, a candidate's total can fall below zero.
• In May 2025, the Supreme Court ordered NBEMS to hold NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift. It said two different question papers can never be exactly equal in difficulty, so two shifts are unfair. NEET-PG 2025 was then held on August 3, 2025.
• The Supreme Court has also directed NBEMS to publish the answer key, raw scores and the method used to prepare rank lists.
• A few top institutes, such as the AIIMS group, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry and NIMHANS, admit students through their own exam, the INI-CET (Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test).

How are seats divided and filled?

Seats are filled through "counselling": candidates fill choices, and seats are allotted in rounds by rank.

• All India Quota (AIQ): 50% of PG seats in government medical colleges, plus all seats in deemed universities, central institutions and some others, are filled by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
• State quota: The remaining government seats and most private college seats are filled by each state's counselling authority.
• In Tanvi Behl v. Shrey Goel (January 29, 2025), the Supreme Court held that domicile-based reservation (reserving seats for people who live in a state) in PG medical seats violates Article 14 (equality before law). Only a limited "institutional preference" for students who did MBBS from that state's college is allowed.

What is a qualifying percentile?

A percentile tells you your position compared with everyone else, not your raw marks. If you are at the 50th percentile, you scored equal to or more than 50% of all candidates. Think of a race of 100 runners: if you are at the 70th percentile, you finished ahead of about 70 runners, whatever your actual time was.

• Under the NMC's Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, the usual minimum to qualify is the 50th percentile for General/EWS, 45th for General-PwBD (persons with benchmark disabilities) and 40th for SC, ST and OBC (including their PwBD candidates).
• Only those who "qualify" can join counselling. The rank list is made by marks; the percentile is only an entry gate.
• The Union Health Ministry can lower the qualifying percentile, in consultation with the NMC, when many seats stay empty.

Why are cut-offs lowered again and again?

Each year, thousands of PG seats stay vacant after the first rounds of counselling. For NEET-PG 2023, the qualifying percentile was cut to zero for all categories in September 2023. For NEET-PG 2024, it was cut to the 5th percentile in February 2025. For NEET-PG 2025-26, more than 18,000 seats were vacant after round 2, which led to the January 2026 cut. The main reasons are:

• High fees in many private and deemed colleges, which most doctors cannot pay.
• Low interest in non-clinical branches such as Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Pathology. These branches have less private practice income, and in many places lower stipends.
• Seat blocking: a candidate takes a seat in an early round and leaves later, so the seat becomes free too late.
• Late approval of new seats and new colleges, after counselling has already started.

What would a rank-based system change?

Under the proposal, no percentile would be declared. Candidates would simply be listed by rank, and seats would go in rank order. Supporters say this removes the yearly drama of cutting cut-offs in the middle of counselling, which delays round 3 by weeks. The committee also wants a minimum floor so that candidates with very poor or negative scores are not admitted. Critics, including the petitioners, ask what real difference this makes if, in practice, almost anyone with a rank can still get a seat.

Commonly confused concepts

• Percentile vs percentage: Percentage is your marks out of the total (for example, 400/800 = 50%). Percentile is your position compared with others. A 50% score could be the 80th percentile in a hard year.
• Percentile vs rank: Rank is your exact place (1st, 2nd, 3rd...). Percentile groups everyone on a 0–100 scale. A qualifying percentile is a gate; rank decides the actual seat.
• NEET-UG vs NEET-PG vs NEET-SS: NEET-UG is for MBBS/BDS admission and is run by the National Testing Agency (NTA). NEET-PG (MD/MS) and NEET-SS (DM/MCh super-speciality) are run by NBEMS.
• NEET-PG vs NExT: NEET-PG is only an entrance exam for PG seats. NExT, planned under the NMC Act, 2019, is meant to be both the MBBS final exam and a licence to practise, and would later replace NEET-PG.
• NEET-PG vs INI-CET: INI-CET is a separate exam for a few institutes of national importance like AIIMS, PGIMER and JIPMER.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Quality concerns: Many doctors and experts argue that letting zero or negative scorers into PG courses can lower the standard of specialist doctors. The Union government's view is that NEET-PG only ranks candidates who are already qualified MBBS doctors, so it does not test basic competence.
• Wasted seats vs quality: Empty PG seats mean fewer specialists in a country that badly needs them. The challenge is to fill seats without diluting quality.
• Fees and stipends: High fees in private colleges and unequal stipends push doctors away from many seats. The expert committee has suggested fee rationalisation and lower fees for non-clinical courses.
• Counselling delays and seat blocking: Multiple rounds, central and state counselling running separately, and seat blocking delay the academic year. Suggestions include a single fee payment, digital "freeze" and "float" choices, KYC or biometric checks, and better data sharing between the MCC and state authorities.
• Transparency: Students have demanded answer keys, raw scores and clear normalisation methods; the Supreme Court has directed NBEMS to publish them.

Concepts to Know

• MD / MS / DM / MCh: MD (Doctor of Medicine) and MS (Master of Surgery) are 3-year postgraduate degrees after MBBS. DM and MCh are higher "super-speciality" degrees, for example in Cardiology or Neurosurgery.
• Clinical vs non-clinical branches: Clinical branches treat patients directly (Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics). Non-clinical or pre-clinical branches (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry) mainly teach and research and involve little patient care.
• Counselling: The process of filling choices and getting seats allotted by rank, done in several rounds.
• Seat blocking: Taking a seat you do not really plan to join, then leaving it late, so the seat is wasted or goes to someone else only at the end.
• Stipend: The monthly payment given to resident doctors (PG students) for the hospital work they do while studying.
• Normalisation: A statistical method to make scores fair when students take different papers or shifts.