The Centre has announced a series of reforms for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2026, introducing a single-shift examination, revised test centre allocation, enhanced security measures and candidate-friendly counselling changes aimed at making the admission process fairer and more transparent.
The Union Health Ministry said NEET-PG 2026 will be conducted in a single shift on August 30, ending the practice of multiple shifts that had been adopted in recent years due to logistical challenges and postponements. Officials said the move would ensure that all candidates take the same question paper under identical conditions, eliminating concerns over varying difficulty levels across different shifts.
Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda reviewed preparations for the examination on Saturday and directed the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), technology partners and other agencies to ensure a smooth, secure and technology-driven examination.
One of the major changes relates to the allotment of examination centres. Instead of the earlier first-come, first-served system, candidates will now be asked to provide three state preferences while filling out their application forms. Their correspondence state will be treated as the mandatory first preference, enabling authorities to allot centres closer to their place of residence and reducing the need for long-distance travel.
Candidates will also be informed of their allotted test city nearly three weeks before the examination, allowing sufficient time to make travel and accommodation arrangements.
The NBEMS has also revised the examination pattern. NEET-PG 2026 will consist of 180 questions to be answered in 210 minutes, replacing the earlier format of 200 multiple-choice questions carrying a maximum of 800 marks. The ministry said the revised format is intended to provide candidates with more time per question while maintaining the overall examination duration.
To strengthen the integrity of the examination, the Centre has introduced several technology-based safeguards. These include multiple layers of encryption during question paper preparation and delivery, secure offline paper preparation, controlled digital decryption at the scheduled commencement of the examination, Aadhaar-based authentication during registration and on exam day, and iris-based biometric verification where fingerprint authentication fails.
Examination centres will also have CCTV surveillance, biometric verification, frisking, signal jammers, dynamic computer allocation and live monitoring through central and regional command centres. More than 60,000 examination functionaries will be deployed across around 1,300 centres in nearly 340 cities.
The Health Ministry said 2,73,183 candidates have registered for NEET-PG 2026, over 12.5 per cent higher than last year.
The reforms also extend to the counselling process. Under the revised system, candidates opting for seat upgrades will no longer need to physically report to colleges before subsequent counselling rounds. The Medical Counselling Committee has also introduced online resignation of allotted seats and digital submission of documents for NRI candidates, while directing institutions and counselling authorities to treat weekends and gazetted holidays as working days to ensure timely completion of admissions.
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