NEET limited to three attempts, Age limits put in place: UGC

The University Grants Commission(UGC), has clipped National Eligibility Entrance Test's(NEET), wings to bring about greater synchronization of functionality, by reducing the attempts for the examination to three and also introduce a new age criterion, for those who wish to sit for the medical and dental entrance test.

 TOI  has recently reported that  the university grants officials took this decision at a meeting on Tuesday, in Delhi . The latest amendments  include setting up of age limit as well as limiting the number of attempts

The most salient feature of the decisions has been to limit the number of attempts to three. This has been done  in order to discourage the thousands who keep trying their luck at the examination and keep on applying every year. It is yet to be reported since when the said capping will be applicable .

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With regards to the following amendments have been put forward

• The minimum age to appear for NEET is 17 years


• The maximum age for the open category is 25 years, and that of the reserved category stands at 30 years.

The move is indeed unprecedented as till now there has been no maximum age to appear for the test nor was there a bar earlier to the number of attempts a candidate could make for clearing the test.

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"This is a good decision," said Dr Pravin Shingare, Director, Maharashtra Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER).

"There are some students who keep taking the test, and when they don't make the cut, join a BSc college and keep taking the medical entrance test," he added.

Interestingly, the new changes will also act as a restraining factor for the faculty of coaching classes, who keep sitting for the examination to understand its altering pattern. The NEET brochures carrying this information would be in distribution soon.

"We often find that coaching classes field candidates and sometimes that leads to fraud and cheating," said an expert.Medical College Principals, welcoming the UGC step said that the cap on age and restricted attempts, is bound to force candidates to focus on the field where their capability and passion lie.

At the same time, the move has created a fear in the students who fear the cap on number of attempts to be an additional pressure while preparing for the highly competitive exam. The move is indeed unprecedented as till now there has been no maximum age to appear for the test nor was there a bar earlier to the number of attempts a candidate could make for clearing the test.