MCI proposes national eligibility test for PG courses

In line with its decision to revamp medical education in the country, the Medical Council of India has proposed to hold National Eligibility cum Entrance tests for (NEET) Post Graduate and Super Speciality courses in a changed format from next year.

A total of 1,50,000 under graduate candidates, who have completed internship, or those expecting to complete by March 31, 2012 will be eligible to take the NEET for entrance to Post Graduate courses.

It will be notified in August 2011 with applications collected by September end, MCI sources said. The admit cards will be dispatched by the middle of November, The examination will be online type conducted in the middle of January, 2012 and the number of sessions will be finalised after the feasibility is explored.

The MD/MS courses will commence from May 2, 2012. The candidates aspiring for direct five-year neurosurgery and neurology super-specialty or similar courses will have to take this NEET-PG examination for the courses commencing in August.

There will be a common paper with 180 questions at MBBS standard to be answered in three hours. The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Super Specialities (NEET-SS) for 2012 would be held for candidates who have completed post-graduation (MD/MS) or those expecting to complete postgraduation by June 15, 2012.

About 6000 to 7000 candidates are expected to take the examination with courses commencing from August one, 2012. It will be notified in February 2012 in all online formats by April end. The admit cards will be dispatched by the middle of May and the exam will be be conducted in the middle of June.

The paper will consist of about 150 to 180 questions of three-hours duration, the sources said, adding the examination will be online. The changes in the examination patterns are yet to be cleared by the Union Health Ministry.

Another proposed examination, the Medical Council of India, Indian Medical Graduate (IMG) Licentiate Examination is also proposed to be held for the first time on 2013.
The examination will consist of questions to assess minimum defined standards for an Indian Medical Graduate(IMG).

Approximately 35,000 to 40,000 medical graduates will take the licentiate examination. Foreign graduates who intend to practice in India will have to qualify in the examination.

The examination will be on-line with most questions based on static images, audio and video clippings. The paper will have only questions of single response from four alternatives or just true/false.

There will be one or more papers of three-hour duration. Each correct question will carry one mark. There will be no negative marking for wrong answers. The examination will be for candidates who completed internship after March 2013. The examination will be conducted in four sessions commencing from April 2013.

The proposed examinations are part of the "Vision 2015" document by the Board of Governors which replaced the MCI last year. The document is the outcome of a series of deliberations and extensive debates that were held under the aegis of various Working Groups and Committees which worked in the past 10 months.