AIPMT scheduled for April, May 2012

By Ruchi Shrimali

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has finally cleared the cloud of doubts about the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Exam for under graduates (NEET-UG). With the permission of the Supreme Court to postpone the NEET-UG to 2013, the CBSE has decided to go ahead with its regular All Indian Pre-Medical/ Pre-Dental (AIPMT) next year.

CBSE conducts AIPMT as a national-level medical entrance exam for 15% seats available for medical and dental courses in all the government-run medical and dental colleges. Only the states of Jammu & Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh are exempted from AIPMT.

AIPMT Prelims will be conducted on April 1, 2012, while AIPMT Mains will be conducted on May 13, 2012.

This year, the board has set up 172 facilitation centers where medical aspirants can submit application forms free of cost during working hours. One of these centers is situated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Schedule for AIPMT Exam

• Online Application forms are to be submitted from December 26, 2011 to January 25, 2012.
• Students, have to then send the confirmation page to the CBSE by February 2, 2012 for the completion of the registration process.
• Students can apply online from January 26, 2012 to February 8, 2012 by paying a late fee of Rs 500.
• Students can submit online application forms by paying a late fee of Rs 1,000 from February 9, 2012 to February 24, 2012.
• Last date of receipt of confirmation page in CBSE for the applications submitted with late fee of Rs 1,000 is March 2, 2012.
• AIPMT Prelims will be conducted on April 1, 2012.
• AIPMT Main will be conducted on May 13, 2012.

Eligibility for AIPMT

• Age Limit: Indian nationals who are between the age of 17 years and 25 years on or before December 31 of the year in which he/she will seek to the first year MBBS/ BDS course. The upper age limit is relaxed by five years for SC, ST, and OBC candidates.
• Educational Qualification: Those who want to appear for AIPMT must have done their XII with Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology and English with at least 50% marks overall and a ‘pass' in each subject individually.

Those who are appearing for their class XII board examinations in 2012 can also apply for AIPMT this year. They may be granted provisional admission to medical and dental courses if they crack the exam.

AIPMT Exam Format and Syllabus

Syllabus, exam pattern, and centers for both the prelims and final examinations of AIPMT will remain the same as in 2011. As always, both the prelims and mains of AIPMT will have objective-type questions.

Hiccups in AIPMT

Due to the delays in decisions about whether AIPMT will be conducted or not, medical aspirants are facing several problems. Usually examinations forms of AIPMT used to reach the banks by November every year. This year, CBSE is going ahead with only online admission forms. This has led to confusion among student community in smaller towns, who are still not aware that they cannot buy forms ‘offline'.

In the first version of the online form, there were errors in the drop down list in the Year of Passing/Appearing of Class XII. However, CBSE has promptly rectified it as soon as it received complaints from students.

If you are appearing for AIPMT 2012, do post your queries, suggestions, feedbacks, comments and concerns here.