NEET-PG
The single entrance for MD, MS, PG Diploma and DNB/NBEMS postgraduate seats in all medical colleges across India, including the armed forces medical services intake.
Eligibility
An MBBS degree or provisional pass certificate from an NMC-recognised college, plus provisional or permanent registration with the National Medical Commission (NMC) or a State Medical Council. The one-year compulsory rotating internship must be completed by the cut-off date (30 September 2026 for the 2026 cycle). There is no age limit and no cap on attempts.
Age limit: No age limit
Exam pattern
Computer-based test of 3 hours 30 minutes. From 2026 the paper has 180 multiple-choice questions worth 720 marks (+4 for a correct answer, −1 for a wrong one), delivered in five time-bound sections of 36 questions with 42 minutes each — you cannot return to a section once it closes. Since 2025 the exam has been held in a single shift nationwide (9 am to 12:30 pm), removing the need for score normalisation. Results are declared as percentiles; the qualifying cut-off is the 50th percentile (40th for SC/ST/OBC, 45th for UR-PwBD). Counselling is run by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) for the All India Quota and by states for state quota.
Syllabus at a glance
The entire MBBS curriculum across 19 subjects: pre-clinical (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry), para-clinical (Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine) and clinical subjects (Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Orthopaedics, ENT, Ophthalmology, Anaesthesia, Radiology, Dermatology, Psychiatry). Recent papers lean heavily on clinical vignettes and image-based questions.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Admit card release | 27 Aug 2026 | confirmed |
| NEET-PG 2026 exam (single shift, 9 am–12:30 pm) | 30 Aug 2026 | confirmed |
| Result declaration | By 30 Sept 2026 | confirmed |
| MCC counselling (round 1 onwards) | Oct–Nov 2026 | expected |
| NEET-PG 2027 applications | Apr–May 2027 | expected |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- Review of Pharmacology — Gobind Rai Garg and Sparsh Gupta
- Review of Preventive and Social Medicine — Vivek Jain
- Complete Review of Pathology — Devesh Mishra
- Surgery Essence — Pritesh Kumar Singh
- Self Assessment and Review of Medicine — Mudit Khanna
- ACROSS: A Complete Review of Short Subjects — Saumya Shukla
How toppers play it
- Train for the five time-bound sections: practise 36-question blocks in 42 minutes with no revisits, because you cannot bank easy questions for later the way you could in older patterns.
- Prioritise the high-yield trio of Pathology, Pharmacology and Preventive and Social Medicine (PSM) — together they anchor both direct questions and the clinical vignettes.
- Do at least 15,000–20,000 MCQs from a question bank with incorrect-answer review; NEET-PG rewards recall of previously tested one-liners inside new clinical stems.
- With +4/−1 marking and a percentile result, controlled guessing after eliminating two options is mathematically favourable — but never blind-guess whole sections.
- Practise image-based questions (X-rays, ECGs, instruments, specimens) daily in the final two months; they now form a sizeable chunk of the paper.