It’s easy for future doctors now

Starting next year, the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) will conduct a National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical and dental colleges all over the country. It will allow eligible students to sit in a single entrance examination to get admission to almost all medical colleges, including private medical colleges. The first such test has been scheduled for 5 May 2013.

Over 10 lakh students are expected to take this examination next year.

Though the examination will be centrally conducted, the reservation of seats in medical and dental colleges in respective categories will continue to be the same. 'There will be no interference in such reservation and quotas, as decided by the state governments and private medical colleges,' a top Medical Council of India (MCI) official said. A change of MCI rules in 2010 created conditions for a single entrance test. 

With this, the all-India pre-medical test, which qualifies students for medical seats, and other state medical entrance examination stand scrapped. There are a total of 355 recognised medical colleges in the country, in which the admissions will now be held on the basis of the common merit list of the new examination.

According to an MCI release, the examination will become a reality after it amended the regulations for graduate medical education and made provision for a single entrance examination. The Dental Council of India (DCI) also amended the BDS course regulation in 2007 and notified it on 31 May 2012 in favour of a single entrance test.

Announcing the date, the CBSE said that the MCI and the DCI have already notified that the board will conduct the test for entry to medical and dental colleges in the country from now onwards. 

The syllabus of the NEET has already been notified by the MCI and all admissions to MBBS and BDS will be held on the basis of the common merit list. The NEET syllabus was finalised after a review of various state syllabi as well as those prepared by the CBSE and other central agencies.