Deemed vs Private Medical Colleges: Which Is Better for MBBS?

The mode of the NEET exam is offline or paper-based mode. Candidates are handed over hardcopy of NEET question paper and OMR sheets to answer the questions. The NEET UG exam has always been conducted in paper-pencil-based mode. Despite the expert committee recommendation to conduct the NEET exam in onlne or computer-based mode, the National Medical Commission (NMC) announced that the NEET 2025 exam will be conducted in offline or paper-pencil-based mode. 

The total duration of the NEET UG exam cycle ranges from seven to eight months. In general, the application process for NEET starts in the first week of February and goes on till March. After that, the correction window is opened in March, followed by the release of the NEET exam city intimation slip in April and the NEET admit card in May, a few days before the exam date. The NEET exam is held in a single day and slot on the first Sunday of May. The result is declared within a month. After that, the NEET counselling process is conducted from July or August, which continues till the seats are filled, tentatively till November or December. 

Candidates can know about the allotment of NEET exam centre through the release of admit card. The NTA releases the NEET admit card around 4 days before the exam. Moreover, candidates can know the allotted NEET exam city through the advance city intimation slip.

The NTA allots the NEET exam centre based on candidates' preference. 

The exact numbers of NEET 2026 exam centres will be announced by NTA along with the result details. It is expected that the total number of NEET 2025 exam centres will be around 5,000. In 2024, the number was 4,750. 

The total number of exam cities for NEET is 566. The number of NEET exam cities in India are 552 and in abroad are 14. The number of exam cities in India changes every year. The exact number is known through the notification PDF.

JEE is related to the engineering field, whereas NEET is related to the medical field. JEE and NEET are both held on an annual basis, and with limited seats, passing these exams becomes more difficult for students. Furthermore, the number of seats in medical colleges is much lower than in engineering colleges. Due to the lesser number of seats available in medical colleges and the high level of competition in NEET getting into a good medical college is challenging. As for difficulty level, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is slightly tougher than Joint Entrance Examination-Mains but easier than Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced, but that is subjective, as seats are comparatively limited in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, making it more competitive. Least Difficult: JEE Mains. Difficult: NEET. Most Difficulty: JEE Advanced. I hope this will help you.

Seat matrix for NEET counselling is important for choice filling process. Before filling and locking seat choices for each round of NEET counselling, candidates must go through seat matrix or seat vacancy and then enter their choices. MCC releases seat matrix prior to commencement of counselling process. This is overall seat matrix for all four rounds of counselling. Candidates participating in Round 1 NEET counselling will have to choose from entire gamut of seats. From second round onwards, seat matrix is released in terms of newly added seats and clear and virtual vacancies. With each round of counselling, number of available seats or vacant seats reduces. 

Although earlier NTA was mulling the idea of conducting NEET twice a year, now it has been confirmed that the exam will be held only once a year in a paper-pencil based mode. NTA communicated this information through an RTI response where it was stated that NEET will be conducted once a year. This has quashed the possibility of conducting NEET twice a year. However, the NTA expert committee headed by ISRO Chief K. Radhakrishnan has recommended conducting NEET twice a year, but there has not been any official confirmation on it yet. 

The NEET OMR sheet is the sheet on which responses are marked by candidates on the exam day. The OMR stands for Optical Mark Recognition. The sheet contains the bubbles against each question numbers. Candidates need to fill the bubble of the correct option. The answers marked on the OMR sheet are checked digitally so candidates must fill the sheet carefully.

NEET stands for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test. It is a mandatory medical entrance exam for students to take admissions for undergraduate medical courses in India such as MBBS, BDS, BSc and Ayush.