Next NEET-PG likely to be replaced with MBBS exit test

NEW DELHI: The NEET-PG scheduled for April-May next year could be the last such examination as the admission to PG medical courses thereafter will be based on the results of the National Exit Test to be taken by final-year MBBS students, officials have said.

At a high-level held on Monday, the National Medical Commission (NMC) is learnt to have conveyed to the Union Health Ministry that it intends to conduct the National Exit Test (NExT) in December 2023, official sources said on Wednesday. If held in December 2023, MBBS students of the 2019-2020 batch will have to appear for the exam. The results of the exam will also be used for admission to postgraduate medical courses from the 2024-2025 batch, they said.

According to the NMC Act, NExT will serve as a common qualifying final-year MBBS exam, a licentiate exam to practise modern medicine and for merit-based admission to postgraduate courses and a screening exam for foreign medical graduates who want to practice in India.

The government had invoked in September the relevant provisions of the NMC Act to extend the time limit for conducting NExT till September 2024. The Act came into force in September 2020.