With the National Testing Agency (NTA), issuing the notification for the National Entrance & Eligibility Examination-Undergraduate (NEET- UG) for the year 2022. For the students appearing in NEET UG 2022, there is a lot in store. With several new revisions and updates, the students are required to have a thoughtful understanding from the first first stage. For this, all the students are advised to refer to the information-bulletin available at the official website of NTA.

Therefore below are some of the key highlights and features of the NEET UG 2022 that the students must have prior knowledge before-hand.

1. Application Procedure:

Unlike the previous year when the application for the NEET UG 2021 was conducted in two phases at different intervals, this year, the application procedure of the NEET UG 2022 follows a 3-step registration process- Registration, Application and Fee Payment. The students have the liberty of completing the entire process together or at the same time.

• Registration:

To register for the NEET-UG 2022, the students have to  log-in on the available students portal at the official website of NTA, i.e. https://neet.nta.nic.in/. The students must note that the entire application process for the exam would be only conducted online.

Once logging in to your portal, you would be directed to the registration page, where you are required to fill in your personal details such as:

(i) Student’s Name/ Mother’s Name/ Father’s Name as on the Secondary School

Examination or equivalent Board/ University Certificate in capital letters.

(ii) Date of Birth in dd/mm/yyyy format as mentioned in the Secondary School Examination or equivalent Board/ University certificate.

(iii) Identification Type: Candidates need to provide any one of the following identity details:

For Indian Nationals of all States/ UTs:- Class 12 Admit Card with Photograph, School ID Card No, Election Card (EPIC No.), Ration Card, Bank Account Passbook with Photograph, Passport Number or Number of any other Photo Identity Card issued by the Government.

For NRIs:- Passport Number

For Foreign Nationals/ OCI:- Passport Number/ Citizenship Certificate Number

(iv) In use mobile number and Email Address: Candidates must provide their own or Parents/Guardian’s valid contact number and e-mail address.

(v) Fill in the complete postal address with PIN Code (Correspondence and permanent address) for further correspondence in the provided space only. 

• Application:

After registering with a brief self details the students are then required to fill in the application form which requires them to fill in their academic and social details and also upload the required documents. 

The students must note that the details filled in the step-1 of the application except for the mobile number and email can be edited before the final form submissions. 

Some of the important details required to be filled includes:

(i) Category: The students are required to choose the category from General, General-EWS, SC, ST & OBC-NCL available in the drop-down list under the Category option. At these steps the students are not required to submit any form of Caste Certificate. The necessary document(s) related to Caste/Community will be verified only at the Counselling in accordance with the concerned Central/State Counselling Authority.

(ii) Nationality: The students of Indian Nationals, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) & Foreign Nationals are eligible to appear for  NEET (UG) – 2022.

(iii) Choice of Examination Cities: The candidate should select any four cities of their choice for examination of NEET (UG) – 2022 given in Appendix-VII. Allotment of the Centre is made by computer and there is no human intervention.

(v) Medium of Question Paper:-  The students must carefully choose the medium of question paper, as it cannot be changed later, once the form  is submitted. Students should note:

• Candidates opting for English would be provided a Test Booklet in English only.
• Candidates opting for Hindi/Regional Language would be provided BilingualTest Booklet i.e. in Hindi/Regional Language and in English. In case of any ambiguity in the translation of any of the questions, its English version shall be treated as final.

(vi) Fill in the academic details (10, 11 & 12): The candidate has to fill in the complete academic details of the 10, 11 & 12/Qualifying Examination. Candidates who passed should fill Code [02 to 07] against the column provided for Qualifying Examination. Candidates appearing in Class 12 in 2022 should select a qualifying code as 01.

Important Things To Remember:

• The students should have Passport size Photograph (size: 10 KB to 200 KB) for the upload.
• The Post Card size photograph (4”X6”) required should be of the size-10KB to 200 KB.
• The photographs must be taken on or after 01.01.2022 preferably indicating clearly the name of the candidate along with the date of taking the photograph. Photographs should not be with cap or goggles. The focus needs to be on the face (80% face coverage, ears clearly visible, white background)
• Same Passport size and Postcard size photographs are to be used for uploading with Online Application Form and for pasting on Attendance Sheet at the Examination Centre/ Counselling/ Admission. Candidates are reminded to keep 6 to 8 passport size and 4 to 6 Postcard size (4”X6”)

colour photographs with white background.

• The candidate should put his full signature in running handwriting [not in the capital letter] on white paper with a Black Ink pen and scan for uploading.
• The signature file size must be between 4 KB to 30 KB.
• The candidate should put Left and Right hand Fingers and Thumb impressions as per the Template provided (Appendix XXVI)
• File size must be between 10 kb to 200 kb

Fee Payment

Once you are done and have duly filled and verified the accuracy of all the information and documents, you would be directed to the next step. After closing on the last step of the application, the students are required to submit the exam fee by choosing the following options:

• Select Debit/Credit Card/Net-banking/UPI /Paytm ofService Provider (Service/Processing charges per transaction & GST (as applicable) to be paid by the candidate wherever applicable) and complete the steps as instructed.
• Print the Confirmation Page after completion of Step 3 i.e. payment through Debit/Credit card/ Net-banking/UPI through State Bank of India/Canara Bank/HDFC Bank/ICICI Bank/Paytm as a service provider(s).
• Generation of Confirmation Page confirms final submission of Application Form. In its absence the application will be said to be incomplete. 

2. Eligibility To Appear For NEET UG 2022

To be eligible to apply for the NEET UG 2022 the students must have fulfilled the given criteria:

• The student must have completed 17 years of age on or before 31 December in the year of admission in the first year of the UG medical course.
• The lower age limit: to appear for the NEET UG exam is 17 years, that menas, all the students, despite their category, must be born before 31st December 2005.
• As per the recent notice by NMC, there is no upper age limit for all the students appearing in NEET UG 2022.
• All the Indian Citizens/ Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) intending to pursue Undergraduate Medical Courses in a foreign Medical/ Dental Institute are required to appear and qualify the NEET UG 2022.

3. Codes For Application At NEET UG 2022

At the time of application, the students are required to fill the code as per their eligibility and previous academic records. The details of these code are listed as below:

4. Scoring & Marking Scheme

Similar to last year, the NEET UG 2022 consists of 4 parts namely Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. Exah part is further divided into two sections- A and B. Section A consists of 35 questions for 140 marks and all compulsory whereas Section B has 15 questions out of which the students need to attempt any 10. The total marks for Section B is 40.

For Section A (MCQs):

(i) The correct answer or the most appropriate answer awards the student with +4 marks.

(ii) The incorrect choice will be marked -1.

(iii) Any unanswered/marked for review choice will be given no mark (0).

(iv) If, on review, it is found that more than one option is correct then +4 marks will be awarded to only those who have marked any of the correct options.

(v) If, on review, it is found the the question itself is wrong it is dropped than all the students 

(vi) If, on review, none of the options is found correct or a Question is found to be wrong or dropped then all the sitting exam will be awarded four marks (+4), irrespective of whether it is attempted or not.

For Section B (MCQs): 

(i) The correct answer/ the most appropriate answers is provided with +4 marks 

(ii) The incorrect answer would be marked -1 mark.

(iii) Any unanswered/marked for review answer would be scored zero.

(iv) If, on review, it is found that if more than one option is correct then +4 marks will be awarded to only those who have marked any of the correct options.

(v) If, on review, it is found that all the options are correct, the +4 marks will be awarded to all the students who have attempted the question..

(vi) in case, if the question is found to be incorrect/ dropped then +4 would be awarded to all the students attempting the question. 

5. Duration Of The Exam

Contrasting to the conduct of the last few years, the duration for the NEET UG 2022 is set to be 200 minutes, i.e. 3 hrs 20 minutes.

NEET was proposed to be a test of accuracy, assessing whether the appearing students have the desired skill and knowledge to pursue the medical exam. However, due to the increase the objective of the exam seemed to be shifted to a speed-test. To address the students’ concern and alleviate their stres, the duration of the exam has been increased to 3 hrs 20 minutes, 20 minutes more to earlier duration 

With getting 20 minutes extra for the same number of questions, the students can adequately devote the time for each question. 

6. Language Of Examination

This year the NEET UG 2022  will be conducted in 13 different languages including English and Hindi. As per the shared NTA information bulletin, the exam will be conducted in the following languages:

Students opting for the English language would receive the test booklet completely in English language. The student who has chosen Hindi/ Regional language as the medium of exam, will get their test booklet in the chosen language and English. In case of doubt the student must refer to the English version as it will be considered as the final.

7. Exam Centres

This year the NTA will be conducting the NEET UG 2022 in 513 cities of India and 14 cities abroad. Last year, NEET UG was conducted in Dubai and Kuwait for the first time. However, this year, the exam will be conducted in different cities of 12 different countries.

The added exam centres of abroad are listed below:

With new exam centres added, Indian students abroad now also have the opportunity to qualify NEET and study in India to follow their dream of becoming a doctor.

8. Checklist For Applying 

Before filling up the application, the students are advised to keep the required set of documents in the desired format to keep the process smooth. The major part of the documentation is required at the part- 2, Application. Not many documents are required to be submitted during the registration and fee payment. 

Some of the documents required for the submission are listed as below:

• The recent photograph should be either in colour or black and white with 80% face (without mask) visible including ears against a white background.
• Scanned photographs, signature, and Left and Right hand Fingers and Thumb impression should be in JPG format (clearly legible).
• Scanned Category Certificate (if applicable), Citizenship Certificate (if applicable), and PwD Certificate (wherever applicable) should be in pdf format (clearly legible).
• The size of the scanned passport photograph should be between 10 kb to 200 kb (clearly legible).
• The size of the scanned Postcard photograph (4”x6”) should be between 10 kb – 200 kb (clearly legible).
• The size of the scanned signature should be between 4 kb to 30 kb (clearly legible)
• The size of scanned and Left and Right hand Fingers and Thumb impressions as per the provided proforma and  should be between 10 kb to 200 kb.
• The size of the scanned copy of the Category certificate (SC/ST/OBC/EWS etc.) should be in pdf between 50kb to 300kb (clearly legible).
• The size of the scanned copy of the PwD certificate should be between 50 kb to 300 kb (clearly legible)
• The size of the scanned copy of Class 10 pass certificate should be between 50 kb to 300 kb (clearly legible).

9. Syllabus For NEET 2022 Exam

As per the information bulletin, the recommended core syllabus for National Eligibility-cum-Enterance Test (NEET)-Undergraduate (UG)- 2022, has been finalised keeping the view of various state syllabi as well as that of the central boards- CBSE, NCERT and COBSE in order to establish the uniformity and relevance to all across the country.

The core syllabus as recommended by the NTA is as follows:

10. Mobile Applications

For this year, the confirmation page of NEET 2022 application form will be made available on the Digilocker platform. Also, NTA has advised the students to use SANDES App to receive all the recent instructions and notifications at the earliest. Once the entire application is completed, the students can find the confirmation page in these portals as well as on their registered e-mail id. 

It has been emphasised again and again for the students to use a valid/in-use phone number and email till the exam procedure is completed.

Exam Room Etiquettes To Keep in Mind

• Dress Code:
  • Students should be dressed in short sleeves and must avoid wearing dark colours.
  • In case, the students prefer to wear the cultural/ customary dress at the Examination Centre, they must report at least an hour prior to have enough time for proper frisking.
  • Students must not wear any closed foot wear like shoes, snickers, stelatoes, etc. Open foot wears like slippers, sandals with low heels are allowed
  • Prior permission of the NTA must be obtained (before the issuing of admit cards) in case of any deviation due to any unavoidable reasons (such as medical, etc.)

• Things To Carry:

The appearing students are required to bring the following listed documents to the exam centre, the absence of these documents would result in the students not being allowed to sit in the exam:

• A printed copy of Admit Card downloaded from NTA website with passport size photograph (same as uploaded).
• One passport size photograph (same as uploaded on the Online Application Form) for pasting on the specific space in the attendance sheet at Centre during Examination.
• One Postcard Size (4”X6”) colour photograph with white background should be pasted on the Proforma downloaded with the Admit Card. The proforma with Post Card size photograph shall be handed over to the Invigilator in the Examination Hall.
• Any one of the authorised photo IDs (must be original and valid and like PAN card/Driving Licence/Voter ID/Passport/Aadhaar Card /Ration Card/ Class 12 Admit Card with Photograph /any other valid photo ID issued by the Government.
• PwBD certificate issued by the Competent Authority, if claiming the relaxation under PwBD category.

• Barred Items:

During the exams, the students are not allowed to carry the following items inside the Examination Centre under any circumstances whatsoever:

• Any textual material (digital or written) in written format such as bits of papers, Geometry/Pencil Box,Writing Pad, Pen Drives, Eraser, Calculator, Log Table, electronic Pen/Scanner, etc.
• Any form of communication device like Mobile Phone, Bluetooth, Earphones, Microphone, Pager, Health Band, etc.
• Miscellaneous items like Wallet, Goggles, Handbags, Belt, Cap, etc.
• Any form Watch/Wristwatch (digital/analogue), Bracelet, Camera, etc.
• Any form of ornaments/metallic items.
• Food items opened or packed, water bottles, etc.
• Any item which could be deemed for the use of unfair means, such as hiding communication devices like a microchip, camera, Bluetooth device, etc.