National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is an entrance examination for the admission in MBBS courses in various medical colleges. Earlier different medical institutes like AIIMS and PIGMER used to conduct different medical entrance tests for admission in MBBS courses all over India.

• From the academic session 2020-21, NEET has become the single entrance test to get admission to undergraduate medical programmes, i.e. MBBS and BDS in India.
• HRD ministry has prescribed only a single medical entrance test for all the institutes.  Check NEET 2020 Exam Dates

Various dental and medical seats in the various medical institutes of the country including those in AIIMS, JIPMER, private medical colleges, state-run medical colleges, etc. will be filled by the common NEET examination. Also, those who are seeking admission to foreign medical Universities have to sit and qualify the examination too.

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Is NEET 2020 Online or Offline

Is NEET 2020 Online or Offline?

The official notification regarding NEET 2020 has been made by MHRD Minister who announced the new date for NEET 2020. NTA will conduct NEET UG examination on July 26th, 2020.

• The medical entrance test will be conducted by NTA in offline mode (pen and paper based) on a single day in a single shift only. 
• The duration of the examination will be of three hours. 
• The candidates who have successfully registered for the test can download their admit card from the official website of NEET UG.
• The results and the cut off marks for the examination will be released online later.

Check NEET 2020 Exam Pattern

Why NEET is still conducted in an Offline Mode?

Why NEET is still conducted in an Offline Mode?

National Testing Agency (NTA) has previously released a notification confirming that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) along with JEE Main, UGC NET, CMAT, and GPAT would be conducted in online mode as a Computer Based Test (CBT).

However now the online exam stands cancelled. Instead, it will be an offline pen and paper based test. There are several reasons given by the Ministry that online examination or Computer based test would not be feasible. 

• The major reason behind this decision was that many candidates appearing for this examination come from rural backgrounds. 
• Those candidates from rural areas would face problems with online exam. 
• This is because they do not have easy access to technology and will face problems while appearing in online exam.

Problems Faced by Candidates if NEET is conducted Online?

What could be the Problems Faced by Candidates if NEET is conducted Online?

• NEET, being one of the largest medical entrance examinations decides the fate of almost 90% of the medical aspirants of the country.
• Therefore, MHRD believed in the fact that the exam had to be regulated in a way that is convenient for all the students. 
• Conducting NEET online will affect the students appearing for the exam coming from a rural background as these students might lack computer literacy as compared to the students from urban backgrounds.
• They do not have easy access to technology and will face problems while appearing in an online exam.

Check  Top Medical Colleges Accepting NEET 2020 Rank from 1,00,000 - 5,00,000

Benefits of NEET Online Test

Benefits of NEET Online Test

There are many benefits of conducting entrance examinations online. Some of the benefits of conducting NEET online are given below:

1. INCREASED SECURITY OF EXAMINATION PAPER

• Online exams are the most secure form of exams. They provide flexibility and security to the examination process. 
• It minimizes the chance of cheating as once all the questions are uploaded in the system, the system can shuffle and give questions in different orders to different students. 
• It is not possible in the case of a paper-based examination.
• Also, in the case of pen- paper based tests, there is a possibility for the paper to get leaked which is not in the case of online examinations.

2. REDUCED EXAMINATION COST

• Online examinations reduce the overhead cost of conducting paper-based examinations. 
• It eliminates the cost of securing an examination hall, printing out multiple question papers, providing answer scripts, and supplementary material to the students which adds up to the cost of conducting paper-based examination.
• Conducting online examination reduces or eliminates such costs, thereby reducing the overall cost of conducting the examination.

3. EASE OF RESULT ANALYSIS AND RANKING

• Generating results and allotment of ranks is way easier in online examinations than paper-based examinations. 
• Result analysis is easy and instant. 
• It is helpful for further decision making or shortlisting process. 
• While in a paper-based examination, there are a lot of steps involved, resulting in the paper evaluation process to take up a lot of time and making it prone to human errors.

These are some of the factors that makes online test better than paper- based examinations. However, the decision is made in keeping in view all the candidates appearing for the examination. Therefore, the decision of conducting NEET online has been withdrawn and the exam will be conducted in offline mode again.

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