From 2020 onward, students who wish to pursue MBBS from one of the AIIMS will have to appear in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) only. Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on October 4, made the historical announcement that NEET will be the only entrance examination for admission to MBBS courses doing away with the separate entrance examinations which were conducted by AIIMS and JIPMER respectively.
With AIIMS MBBS gone, students who were aiming for admission to MBBS programmes offered by AIIMS will have to align their strategy according to NEET.
While the effort certainly decreases as students would need to prepare only for one entrance examination, the competition has increased.
The inclusion of AIIMS and JIPMER in the ambit of NEET exam will also have a bearing on the cut off marks.
The exam pattern, evidently, also changes. AIIMS MBBS exam was a computer-based test while NEET remains a pen-paper based exam.
Based on previous year exam patterns it can be assumed that NEET UG 2020 will be an OMR-based exam of 3 hours duration. There are three sections in the question paper - Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Biology has two sub-sections - Zoology and Botany.
The NEET UG 2020 question paper will have total 180 questions. Physics and Chemistry section will have 45 questions each. Biology section will have 90 questions - 45 questions from Zoology and 45 questions from Botany.
The pattern for NEET 2020 is starkly different from what was AIIMS MBBS exam pattern.
AIIMS MBBS 2019 was conducted in computer-based mode. The duration of the exam was three hours and thirty minutes duration. There were total five sections in the question paper. Physics, Chemistry, and Biology sections had 60 questions each. Biology section had questions from both Botany and Zoology. Apart from these sections, there was one section on General Knowledge and other on Aptitude and Logical Thinking. Both these sections had 10 questions each.
An advantage that NEET has over AIIMS MBBS is that NEET does not have the added sections on general knowledge and logical thinking. However, the number of questions in the Biology section is more in NEET than they were in AIIMS MBBS exam.
In terms of language too, NEET has an advantage over AIIMS MBBS. In 2019, AIIMS MBBS was conducted in English and Hindi while NEET UG was conducted in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
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