NEET PG 2025’s two-shift exam structure sparks debate among students, medicos
As NBEMS plans NEET-PG 2025 in two shifts, students raise concerns over fairness, fearing unequal difficulty levels across shifts.
CHENNAI: The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences’s move to hold the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) or NEET-PG 2025 in a computer-based format across two shifts has sparked a social media debate with hashtag #neetpg2025 trending on X (formerly Twitter). On Monday, the NBEMS had announced that the exam will be held on June 15, 2025, between 9 am to 12.30 pm and between 3.30 and 7 pm.
Medical students, doctors, and activists have raised concerns about the normalisation process involved with conducting the two exams, which is done to ensure that students are evaluated fairly. Normalisation is the process used to adjust scores to a common scale as question papers in the two shifts are different. They argue that conducting the exam in two shifts will compromise fairness, as candidates in different shifts might experience varying levels of difficulty. In such a competitive setting, even slight differences in the difficulty of questions or how the exam is administered can have significant consequences for a student’s future, they rued.
Several medical professionals also pointed out that the multiple-shift format during NEET PG 2024 had led to alleged score discrepancies and requested for a single-shift exam to ensure uniformity in difficulty level, prevent post-exam stress, and avoid legal complications and result delays. An X user wrote, “I’ve sent a letter to @NbeIndia and @NMC_BHARAT requesting a return to the single-shift format. Students deserve a just evaluation system. #neetpg2025 #NEETPG.”
Another comparison was drawn between the NEET UG and NEET PG 2025 formats. “NEET UG 2025 will have around 25 lakh applications, will be paper-based, and conducted in a single shift. In contrast, NEET PG 2025, with 2-2.5 lakh applicants, will be held in two computer-based shifts,” stated a concerned doctor. “The question remains, why is this necessary? Could there be underlying issues at play?”
Another medical expert pointed out on X that despite these issues and the six-month delay in the counseling process for NEET PG 2024, which caused significant stress to students, the NMC is still planning to conduct the 2025 exam in two shifts.
Meanwhile, numerous groups such as the Unified Doctors Front (UDF) have written to Health Minister JP Nadda seeking to re-examine the two-shift arrangement, stating that a single-day single-shift exam would eliminate score discrepancies, legal uncertainties, and reduce student anxiety.
