In this article let’s take a look at pros and cons of NEET exam to know whether it is worth cracking the exam or not in detail.
So if you are confused and do not know whether you should choose to write this exam or not then you should read this article the end.
So without further ado let’s get started.
Pros and cons of NEET exam
Pros of NEET exam
Single exam for admission for students
One of the main advantages of this exam is that it is the only exam you need to take and score good marks & rank in order to get admission into various Government and private medical colleges for MBBS and dentistry courses in our country.
Before this exam it was a situation that many individual Government and private colleges had created their own entrance exam and some of the institutions eligibility criteria and exam pattern were not favourable & suitable to some students but now many medical entrance exams are replaced by NEET like AIPMT, other state-level CET such as Delhi-PMT, MHCET, R-PMT, WBJEE, EAMCET etc.
Because of this The main advantage is before the NEET exam students had to take multiple exams which would increase the study load and pressure but NEET had replaced all the exams and became a common exam for entrance in medical colleges of our country and
this exam also tries to reduce the study load on the students by limiting the number of questions to be answered to 180 and providing around three hours of time which is equal to one minute for every question.
And with this exam you can get a chance to get admission in top medical colleges like AIIMS, and it’s all possible because of the NMC act.
Saves time & budget
Because you only have to take one entrance exam which is this exam instead of many, it can save you a lot of time and money and also a lot of expenses of transportation and hostel fees if you belong to far rural areas for students and their parents.
Ranking based on score not reservations
NEET rankings are conducted based on the exam scores a student secures, so it has no effect on the reservation policies. If or when it is mandated by their state governments, the states themselves could apply their old reservation system. However, the rankings would still be based on NEET scores and not reservations.
Also, as of 2019, the NTA prepares the merit list for NEET as well as conducts the examination. This means that they do not interfere in state affairs.
When we talk about the state quota seats and its admissions, the counseling for it is done by the state boards themselves. So a candidate from one state may always take admission under the state quota. But only if they have certification or proof of residence.
Full transparency
Another interesting benefit of NEET exam is that because it is conducted by National testing agency it is more transparent compared to other state level exams.
There have been many cases where state level exams and independent exams conducted by individual colleges were full of scams and paper leaks, It’s common to see deep connections and general corruption enabling the potential of seats being stolen from those who rightfully secured it.
But this is not the case with NEET exam because it is conducted by National testing agency which comes under Central Government department and it has more strict rules and it is believed that this exam will soon get online instead of offline mode so it can eliminate the risk of paper leak and give equal opportunity to all the students and be transparent.
Answer only 180 questions out of 200
Another advantage of this exam is that you will only have to answer 180 questions out of 200 which are present in the exam and this is good because for example if you are not sure about any particular question like in Biology subject then
you can leave that question and answer another question because you will get 10 additional questions of Biology subject (5 more each in physics and chemistry subjects) in the paper and because of this you can prevent yourself from negative marking by only answer the questions which you have full confidence on.
Good changes in new exam pattern
With the recent changes in the NEET exam now the exam pattern is more better because the exam paper is more organised and divided into 2 sections (section A&B) of each subject and
because of this you exactly know which questions will be tough, tricky and which questions will be easier so that you can devote time to solve those questions accordingly in the exam
& with the new exam pattern there will be equal questions of 50 each asked from all the subjects which are botany, zoology of Biology subjects and physics chemistry unlike the previous exam pattern which had more questions asked from botany and
less from zoology and this is a good thing because you can be sure that 50 questions will be asked from each subject so you can master in few subjects like physics chemistry and zoology and take other subject which is botany easy if you have less preparation time.
At the same the exam pattern of NEET is also very similar to AIPMT, 15% All-India Quota percentage is also the same for both exams which will eliminate the confusion which students might have because of new exam.
Because of all these amazing reasons almost all types of students are easily compatible with this exam and also clear the exam with good preparation and coaching.
Unlimited attempts chance
Another advantage of this exam is that you can get unlimited chances to attempt this exam.
For example if you attempted this exam in 2021 and you did not score the rank that you expected than you can consider taking a drop year and
prepare in one year of time and again attempt the exam in the 2022 and then you can also consider dropping one more year and attempt the exam in 2023 like this you can get unlimited chances to attend the exam as long as you are satisfied with your result.
This may not appear as a big deal but when we compare this exam with JEE advanced which is entrance exam & second stage of JEE exam & it is for the students who want to get enrolled in IIT and
other top engineering colleges in our country, in that exam you can only write the exam for 2 years in consecutive, their is no third attempt chance like you have with NEET.
The only drawback for this is that you’ll have to wait one year in order to get another chance to attend the exam.
Translated in many regional languages
Another benefit of this exam is that is translated into 11 regional languages of our country including English and Hindi.
The languages in which the medical entrance exam, NEET, will be held are: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
This is a benefit for the student because they can choose the question paper & write the answers in the language that they are comfortable with because sometimes students might not be comfortable in understanding languages such as English and if students don’t properly understand the language and the questions asked in that language for example physics subjects questions
they may not properly answer that question and this can lead to getting negative marks & failure in the exam but having the exam translated in many regional languages will eliminate that risk and students get equal opportunity to score marks & rank irrespective of their background.
These are all the advantages of the NEET exam.
Cons of NEET exam
Limited seats & High competition
This is a no brainer.
Every entrance exam you can think of has some level of competition whatsoever and when it comes to the NEET exam the competition gets to a different level.
It is because there are limited seats and the number of people who write the exam is quite high.
Let’s take a look at the numbers first.
As per the latest NEET seats data of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI), a total of 83,125 MBBS, 26,949 BDS, 52,720 AYUSH, and 525 BVSc & AH are available in 554 medical and 315 dental colleges.
And according to a report of Indian express
The medical entrance exam — NEET has over 13 lakh (13,66,945) students in 2020, while 14 lakh (14,10,755) students appeared in 2019.
As you can see there are very limited seats and the number of people who attend the exam is humongous.
Negative marking
Another disadvantage of this exam is that there is a feature of negative marking.
First of all the questions in NEET exam are multiple choice questions, For each correct answer in NEET, 4 marks will be awarded and one mark will be deducted for each wrong attempt. If any candidate will leave the question unattempted, there is no negative marking.
Which means that for every wrong answer you select, one mark will be deducted from your score and the fact is that you will have to answer over 180 questions out of 200 in the exam.
Negative marking is a feature that is common in almost all competitive exams and it is not a big deal but the problem is that there are 180 questions which you need to answer so it becomes a issue and also because of limited time which leads me to third disadvantage of NEET exam.
Limited time of 3 hours
This is also a serious disadvantage of neet exam.
As you have learnt earlier that 4 marks will be awarded for every correct answer and one mark will be deducted for every wrong answer and you will have to answer over 180 questions out of 200,
the fact is you only get 3 hours of time which is quite limited and restricted which is equal to 1 minute for every question.
I believe the time duration should be increased 4 hours at least.
Exam conducted once a year
Another disadvantage of neet exam is that it is conducted only one time every year.
There are many serious discussions of national testing agency going on with the ministry of education and health department of Central Government and it is believed that neet exam will be conducted twice every year from 2022 but as of now this exam is conducted only once every year.
This is a disadvantage because if a student can’t clear the exam in their first attempt, they will have to wait one more year to get a chance to write the exam and get admission into the medical college because of this it creates a lot of pressure on the students to perform and score good marks and rank in the current exam which creates extra burden & stress on students.
High costs for NEET preparation
Another disadvantage of neet exam is that it requires a lot of money to prepare for this exam.
Most private colleges and coaching institutes which offer NEET exam preparation will charge around 3-500000 rupees for two years of preparation for the student which is quite a big amount of money and not everyone can afford it.
Becoming a doctor in our country is a dream of not just urban area students but also of rural area students of our country but majority of the students who belong from rural areas cannot afford such high price of education and coaching service and even the NEET exam is quite tough and difficult exam which requires such quality coaching and guidance.
CBSE syllabus In NEET exam
Another disadvantage of neet exam is that the exam will be based upon the syllabus of CBSE board.
The CBSE syllabus may seem normal for those coming from either a national-level education background, but candidates with state-level education background will find it much more difficult. Although NEET strives to maintain equality for all candidates, equality in this context is a challenge that has yet to be answered.
For example there are many states in our country like Telangana Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu Karnataka students get their own State level education instead of CBSE which creates problems during preparation of the exam.
These are all the pros and cons of NEET exam
Is cracking NEET exam worth it?
After learning all the pros and cons in my opinion NEET exam is definitely worth cracking.
There are many benefits of this exam like you can get unlimited chances to attempt the exam and this exam can save you a lot of time and money because
it is the only exam you need to take in order to get admission into government and private medical colleges in our country and this exam is also very transparent which gives equal opportunities to all the students.
I would definitely recommend you to choose and Crack NEET exam if you really want to become a doctor in our country.
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the things you need to know about NEET exam and whether it is worth it or not.
Do comment on what do you think about NEET exam in the comment section below.
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