Medical entrance exam NEET in 80 cities on May 7

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to all medical colleges in the country on May 7. The board will conduct the test as per the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (amended in 2016) and the Dentists Act, 1948 (also amended in 2016). The test will be conducted across 80 cities on May 7 for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in medical/dental colleges run with the approval of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, except for the institutions established through an Act of Parliament ie AIIMS and JIPMER Puducherry.

"Candidates have been given an opportunity to submit the online application for a month from January 31 to March 1. This year in all the seats of MBBS/BDS courses, admission will be done through NEET," an official statement said. Accordingly, admissions will be done in all-India quota seats, state government quota seats, state/management/NRI quota seats in private medical/dental colleges or any private/ deemed university and central pool quota seats. Indian citizens, non-resident Indians, overseas citizens of India, persons of Indian origin and foreign nationals are eligible to appear in NEET (UG) 2017 and will also be eligible for 15 per cent all-India quota seats.

The upper age limit of the candidates has been fixed at 25 years on the date of conduct of the test. Reserved category candidates will get a five-year relaxation. Candidates will be allowed to appear for three attempts. Candidates need their Aadhaar number to fill up the online application of NEET 2017, except those from Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya. After conducting the test, the CBSE will prepare an all-India rank list based on the instructions of the Medical Council of India. The test will be held at 1,500 examination centres across the country and more than 10 lakh candidates are expected to appear. Last year, in both NEET-I and NEET-II, 8,02,594 candidates were registered.