The NEET examination for admission to undergraduate medical courses will be held on August 1, 2021. It will be conducted on a single day, in an offline pen-and-paper mode, the National Testing Agency announced on Friday.
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NEET (UG), or National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), is used for admission to MBBS and BDS courses as well as programmes for alternative or traditional medicine and nursing.
It is usually held in May, after Class 12 board examinations, in order to facilitate admissions by August. However, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, board examinations have been delayed this year and will only be completed in June, delaying the medical entrance examination as well.
In 2020, NEET was held in September, and repeated in October to cater to those who missed the exam due to COVID. Some students had urged that multiple attempts be permitted in 2021, similar to engineering entrance examination JEE. However, the NEET examination will revert to a single date in 2021.
Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has indicated that although there will be no reduction in syllabus for NEET, there may be a larger level of internal choice to account for the fact that several school examination boards have reduced their syllabi due to the impact of the pandemic.
