Health Perspectives with Dr Rohan Krishnan: Are we ready for NEXT exam?

What's NExT?

Section 15 of the NMC Act provides for the conduct of a common final year undergraduate examination, to be known as the National Exit Test (NExT) which shall be the basis for Registration to practice medicine, admission to PG medical courses and Screening Test for foreign medical graduates to practice modern medicine.

The NExT was supposed to be operational within three years from the commencement of the NMC Act, 2019 i.e. 25th September 2022 and conducted through a designated authority and in such a manner as may be specified by regulations. The Act came into force in September 2020.

Recently, NMC finally released the proposed draft regulations related to National Exit Test (NExT) and put an end to the speculations regarding the manner of the exam and its other details.

The draft confirms that the NEXT shall comprise of two separate of examination called as "Steps". Of these NExT Step 1 will be a Theoretical Examination, whose scores will be used towards determining merit for the purpose of admission to Postgraduate courses in broad specialties as well as may be used by State governments for employement, scholarship and other purposes. These scores will have a validity of three years NExT 2, on the other hand, will be a Practical /Clinical and Viva Voce Examination covering seven clinical subjects/disciplines where results shall be declared as only Pass / Fail based.

In a seperate notice, it was further informed that The Union Government has proposed to dissolve the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), and replace it with Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (BEMS) as the Fifth Autonomous Board under the NMC.