New Delhi: Candidates for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2025 have just over a month to prepare, with the exam scheduled for May 4.
This year, NEET-UG, India’s premier undergraduate medical entrance exam, introduces significant changes, including a new paper pattern. Experts believe these modifications could impact the number of top scorers and overall results.
Join NEET News 2025 The official notice highlights a key change: removing the option-based pattern. Previously, the exam was divided into two sections for each subject—Section A and Section B. Candidates were required to answer 35 questions from Section A and had the option to select 10 out of 15 questions in Section B. This structure, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, has now been discontinued.
The revised format reduces the total number of questions from 200 to 180. These include 90 questions in Biology (a combination of Botany and Zoology) and 45 questions each in Physics and Chemistry. Additionally, the exam now has a single paper for Biology, streamlining the format further.
Another major change is the reduction in exam duration. Candidates will now have three hours to complete the test, 20 minutes less than the previous allocation of three hours and 20 minutes.
These adjustments are expected to lower the cut-off marks and reduce the number of candidates achieving perfect scores. In 2024, 67 candidates initially scored a perfect 720 out of 720, but this number dropped to 17 after corrections to the Physics answer key.
The 17 perfect scorers in 2024 included four candidates from Rajasthan, three from Maharashtra, and two each from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Overall, only 24 candidates have achieved a perfect score in NEET-UG from 2020 to 2024.
With these changes in place, candidates are advised to adapt their preparation strategies to meet the new exam format effectively.
