Reference

The NEET PG 2026 exam pattern

NBEMS has rebuilt the paper. It is now 180 questions instead of 200, split into 5 sections of 36 that are timed and locked independently. The total duration has not changed — how you are allowed to spend it has. Exam day is 30 August 2026.

180

Questions

720

Maximum marks

Sections

42 min

Per section

+4 / -1

Right / wrong

Total time is 210 minutes — 5 × 42 — which is the same 3h 30m as 2025. 09:00 – 12:30 IST. Single shift, computer-based, English only. Four options per question. Unattempted questions score zero.

How the paper is laid out

Five sections, labelled A to E, identical in size and length. You sit them in order. Subjects are mixed across all five rather than grouped, so the section labels tell you nothing about what is inside them.

Section	Questions	Time	Marks
A	36	42 min	144
B	36	42 min	144
C	36	42 min	144
D	36	42 min	144
E	36	42 min	144
Total	180	210 min	720

The rules that govern the clock

These five are the whole change. Read them as a set — each one closes an escape route the others would otherwise leave open.

1
Free navigation inside a section
For its 42 minutes you can move between all 36 questions of the section you are in, answer them in any order, change answers and mark for review.
2
No going back once the timer expires
When a section’s 42 minutes run out it closes and you are advanced to the next one. Anything left blank in it stays blank for the rest of the exam.
3
No early advance
Finishing a section early does not let you move on. You wait out the remaining time in that section.
4
Unused time does not carry over
Every section gets exactly 42 minutes regardless of what you did with the previous one.
5
Subjects are mixed across all five sections
Sections are not subject-wise. The 19 MBBS subjects are distributed across all five sections, so each one mixes pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinical questions and there is no section you can prepare for, or write off, as a block.

What changed from 2025

Most material still in circulation — question banks, strategy videos, cutoff tables — describes the struck-through version.

Field

2025 → 2026

Why it matters

Questions

200180

Twenty fewer questions to absorb a bad day. Each item is now worth a slightly larger share of your rank.

Maximum marks

800720

Any cutoff or score you have seen quoted from 2025 or earlier is on a different scale and cannot be compared directly.

Structure

One continuous paper5 sections of 36

The paper is now five short exams in a row rather than one long one.

Timing

3h 30m, spend it how you like42 minutes per section, hard-locked

You can no longer bank time. Rushing an easy section buys you nothing in a hard one.

Navigation

Any question, any timeWithin the current section only

The classic strategy of a fast first pass across the whole paper and a second pass at the end no longer exists. Both passes now have to fit inside 42 minutes.

What it means for how you sit the paper

Your per-question budget is 70 seconds, and it is now enforced

42 minutes across 36 questions is 70 seconds each. That was roughly true before as an average, but you could borrow against it. Now the borrowing window closes every 42 minutes, so a single question you refuse to abandon costs you questions in the same section rather than at the end of the paper.

Leaving a section unfinished is permanent

Under the old paper an unanswered question was a decision you could revisit. Under this one, a question you skip in Section B is gone the moment Section B closes. Skipping is still correct on an item you genuinely cannot do — negative marking has not changed — but it has to be a decision, not a deferral.

Finishing early is not an advantage

There is no reward for speed beyond finishing the section. If you have minutes left, they can only be spent on the 36 questions in front of you, so review your marked items rather than sitting idle.

Practise in 42-minute blocks, not 3.5-hour ones

The skill the new paper tests is triage inside a short, closed window. A full-length mock that lets you roam the whole paper does not rehearse that, and neither does a 20-question quiz. The unit of practice is now 36 questions in 42 minutes.

Mixed subjects mean you cannot warm up

With the 19 MBBS subjects distributed across all five sections, a weak subject can reach you five separate times under five separate clocks, next to questions from four other disciplines. There is no section you can decide to sacrifice, and no run of same-subject questions to settle into.

Practising the new format

Meridian

Meridian’s Grand Tests are built to this pattern — 180 questions in 5 sections of 36, each locked to 42 minutes, with the same inability to go back or move on early. Everyone sits the paper in the same window, so the rank you get is measured against a real cohort rather than a rolling average.

What the series is See a sample result

Sources

NBEMS’s information bulletin is the only authority on any of this. Confirm against it before you plan around anything on this page.