20/07/2021

NEXT Exam 2023 for Medical students – Exam pattern, Subject wise weightage

Howdy medicos! I’m sure you’ve been wondering how the new NEXT exam, which was introduced by the National Medical Commission Bill 2019, will work for Indian medical graduates.

So, in this post, I’ll provide some facts that I’ve gathered over the last few days. We’ll go over the basics like what the NEXT test is, eligibility criteria, exam pattern, schedule, the difference between NEXT and NEET PG, and some NEXT 2023 FAQs.

What is the NEXT exam?

The National Exit Test, abbreviated as NEXT, is a single-window examination that is conducted to meet three needs,

Providing MBBS certificates to medical students and granting licenses to practice as a medical practitioner,

A new qualifying and ranking examination in India replacing former NEET PG for medical students who wish to study various postgraduate Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Surgery (MS), and diploma courses, in government or private medical institutions and

Finally, foreign medical students will be able to qualify for the NEXT test rather than the existing Medical Council of India Screening Test FMGE (Foreign Medical Graduates Examination)

Eligibility criteria for the NEXT exam

Whether you are an Indian or a foreign medical student, you must have passed the first, second, third, and final year examinations.

However in my assumption, a Medical student from India is only permitted to undertake his or her internship after passing the NEXT 1, but foreign students must have previously completed their internship at their foreign university. As a result, they may not be obliged to take an Internship again, instead choosing for NEXT 2.

Foreign medical students need also to take the NEXT within two years of completing their MBBS internship in a foreign country in order to practice as a doctor in India.

NEXT exam for Medical students

NEXT will be split into two sections.

NEXT 1 will consist of theoretical questions, whereas
NEXT 2 will consist of practical questions.

Multiple-choice questions will be used in the theory part (MCQs). NEXT-1 will take place following the final year of MBBS and before the internship. Students start their internship after passing NEXT 1. Those who pass the theory exam (NEXT 1) must also pass the practical exam (NEXT 2) at the end of the internship. After the internship, your NEXT-1 score will assist you in securing a PG seat.

The NEXT 2 will be a pass/fail kind that will help you obtain your MBBS degree. NEXT 2 scores will not be used to determine PG seat allotment. As a result, NEXT 1 will be both a qualifying and a competitive exam.

The fact that, like NEET-PG, the NEXT exam allows unlimited tries is also the best part. Furthermore, the NEXT 1 marks will be valid for about 2 to 3 years.

NEXT Exam 2023 Schedule

An official draft schedule for the NEXT exam was released on 30^th July 2021, in the NMC DRAFT POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION REGULATIONS 2021. As per the draft, the schedule will be,

S. No	Schedule for Admission	Central Counselling		State Counselling
S. No	Schedule for Admission	All India Quota	Deemed + Central Institute	State Counselling
1	Conduct of Exam	By 10 January
2	Declaration of Result	By end of January
3	First Round of Counselling	12 March 24 March	12 March 24 March	25 March 5 April
4	Last date of Joining	3 April	3 April	12 April
5	Second round of Counselling	6 April – 12 April	6 April – 12 April	15 April – 26 April
6	Last date of joining	22 April	22 April	3 May
7	Mop up Round		12 May 22 May	16 May 20 May
8	Last date of joining		26 May	26 May
9	Forwarding the list of students in order of merit equaling ten times the number of vacant seats to the Medical Colleges by the Counselling Authority		27 May	27 May
10	Last date of joining		31 May	31 May

PROF I

PROF II

PROF III Part 1

PROF III Part 2

PROF IV Part 1

PROF IV Part 2

So far now one official draft schedule for the NEXT examination has been released by Indian Medical Association. As per the IMA medical students network,

Due to a change in the GMER timetable, all medical institutions are proposing to have Prof III part II examinations in January.

Supplementary examinations are scheduled for February.

NEXT 1, also known as Prof IV Part I, is scheduled for March.

An internship is planned to begin in April.

The internship is scheduled to end in March.

NEXT 2, also known as Prof IV Part II, is scheduled to take place in April.

The PG course is scheduled to begin in JULY.

NEXT Exam Pattern

The NEXT test is a three-day examination.

The question paper of the NEXT examination is broken into six parts.

Every single day of the exam, you will have a morning pre-lunch session of 3 hours and an afternoon post-lunch session of 1.5 hours.

Major Subjects

Allied Subjects

Minor Subjects

Basic Applied Sciences

Major Subjects

Allied Subjects

Minor Subjects

Basic Applied Sciences

Each day’s morning session will have 120 MCQs from Major Subjects and Allied Subjects.

Each day’s afternoon session will have 60 MCQs from Minor subjects.

Thus this exam will include a total of 540 questions.

The total NEXT questions are divided into 60% Problem Solving, 30% Comprehension and Analysis, and 10% Recall.

Practical knowledge is the focus of the NEXT examination.

There is currently no official information on whether the NEXT examination will be conducted online or offline. However, it would most likely be conducted online, similar to the NEET PG exam.

There is presently no official word on whether the NEXT examination would include negative marking for incorrect answers. However, similar to the NEET PG exam, it may include negative marks.

For example,

If a correct answer is worth 4 marks, the mark deduction for an incorrect answer might be 1. If a correct answer is worth 1 mark, the mark deduction for an incorrect answer might be 1/4.

NEXT exam Subject weightage

The NEXT examination syllabus will contain all 19 subjects from the revised MCI curriculum. However, the subject-wise mark distribution will be vastly different from that of the NEET-PG or MCI FMGE Screening exams. Clinical subjects will receive much more important in terms of marks than pre-clinical and para-clinical ones.

Among the 540 MCQs,

60% will be of problem-solving

30% comprehension & analysis

10% recall

Each Major, Minor, and Allied subject will have,

10% MCQs from basic applied sciences (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology & pharmacology) and another

10% MCQs from Preventive & Social Medicine (PSM)

Day of exam	Major Subjects	Allied subjects	No. of MCQs	Minor Subjects	No. of MCQs	Total MCQs
1	Medicine	Dermatology, psychiatry	120	Pediatrics	60	180
2	Surgery	Orthopedics, anesthesia	120	ENT	60	180
3	Obstetrics & Gynecology	Radiology	120	Opthalmology	60	180
Total MCQs			360		180	540

How NEXT exam differs from NEET-PG?

Things	NEXT exam	NEET PG exam
Exam parts	2 parts, NEXT 1 and NEXT 2	Conducted as one exam
Period of exam	NEXT 1: Before internship after final MBBS exams, NEXT 2: After the internship	Conducted one time and only after the internship
Type of exam	NEXT 1: Multiple Choice Questions NEXT 2: Oral and practical examination	Multiple Choice Questions
Total days of the exam	3 days	1 day
Total Time	13 Hours 30 Minutes (4.5 Hours/day)	3 Hours 30 Minutes
Difficulty Level of exams	Completely texts your practical way of applying your conceptual knowledge Problem Solving- 60%, Comprehension and Analysis- 30% Recall- 10%	Mostly straightforward questions which can be answered if we know the general facts
Mode of exams	NEXT 1: Online NEXT 2: Offline	Online
No of sessions	Has two sessions every day means 6 sessions in total. One is Major and Allied subjects and the other one is Minor subjects	Has 3 sections Pre-Clinical, Para-Clinical, and Clinical
Total no of Questions	540 questions	200 questions from 2021 onwards
Total marks and negative marks	2160 with a 1 mark deduction for an incorrect answer	800 with a 1 mark deduction for an incorrect answer
Pass and High scores	Pass in NEXT 1 will allow you to do the internship and High scores will help you to get a PG seat. NEXT 2 is extremely a pass or fail exam that allows you to get the MBBS degree along with the license to practice medicine in India.	High scores will get you a PG seat
Validity of marks	NEXT examination marks are valid for 3 years from the period of internship	NEET PG marks are valid for only two year

Important links and downloads

Important updates	Date released	Downloads and Links
NEXT exam Mock series		Coming soon…
NEXT exam sample Question paper		Coming soon…
NMC official POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION REGULATIONS 2021 Draft	July 30, 2021	NEXT 2023 PGMER 2021 Draft
NEXT examination social media notification	July 01, 2021	NEXT 2023 update
NEXT exam pattern by IMA	November 2020	NEXT exam pattern PDF
NEXT 2023 updates official website		nmc.org.in
NEXT 2023 will be conducted by		nbe.edu.in

Frequently asked Questions (FAQs) about NEXT exam

When will the NEXT exam be implemented?

The conduct of the NEXT Exam for Postgraduate Broad Specialty courses (MD/MS) is scheduled for January 10, 2023, according to the NMC official POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION REGULATIONS (PGMER) 2021 DRAFT, released on July 30, 2021.

Which batch will be the first to take the NEXT exam?

As per the recent notification circulating on social media, the first batch to take the NEXT exam will be the 2018 batch on March 2023.

How many times can you attempt the NExT exam?

So far, there is no limitation to how many times you may take the NEXT exam.

Furthermore, the NEXT 1 results are valid for 3 years. It implies that if you have a certain set of marks in 2023 and are unable to obtain a PG seat, you will have a chance to do so if the cut-off mark falls in the next 2 years.

What is the total mark in the NEXT exam?

We know that the NEXT test will include a total of 540 questions. There are two sorts of marking systems. If the right answer gets 4 marks, the total score will be 2160. However, if the right answer gets 1 mark, the total score will be 540.

Is there a negative marking in the next exam?

There is presently no official word on whether the NEXT exam would include negative marking for incorrect answers. However, similar to the NEET PG exam, it may include negative marks.

For example,

If a correct answer is worth 4 marks, the mark deduction for an incorrect answer might be 1. If a correct answer is worth 1 mark, the mark deduction for an incorrect answer might be 1/4.

What will be the NEXT exam’s qualifying marks?

We have no clue how the NEXT exam marking system will work. However, if we compare the NEET PG marking scheme to the NEXT exam, the qualifying marks for the NEXT exam will look like this.

S. No	Category	NEXT exam Qualifying mark (Original)	NEXT exam Qualifying mark (Revised)
1	General	50 Percentile	30 Percentile
2	General – PwD	45 Percentile	25 Percentile
3	SC/ST/OBC	40 Percentile	20 Percentile
4	SC/ST/OBC – PwD	40 Percentile	20 Percentile

Is the NEXT exam compulsory for MBBS?

Yes, MBBS students will be required to take and pass the NEXT (National Exit Test) from 2023 onwards. Because it ensures your PG seats as well as your license to practice as a doctor in India.

Is the NEXT exam confirmed for MBBS students?

In 2021, the National Medical Commission proposed regulations for the new NEXT exam, which would replace the NEET PG and FMGE exams in India. Also, according to a recent social media notification, there is no option to halt the NEXT exam beyond 2022.

Why did NMC decide to replace NEET PG with NEXT?

The goal appears to be to improve the quality of MBBS graduates in India. The Centre intends to create a lot better and more skilled batch of MBBS graduates in India by providing a much deeper grasp of clinical principles and increasing problem-solving skills.

What happens if you fail the NEXT exam?

Apart from not being qualified to attend PG counseling, if you fail NEXT 1, you will be unable to enter your internship and would have to wait another year to retake the test.

Furthermore, if you fail NEXT 2, you will not receive your MBBS degree, would not be authorized to practice medicine, and will not be eligible to enroll in PG courses. You’ll have to wait another year to try it again, just as with NEXT 1.

What will be the mode of the NEXT exam?

The NEXT 1 exam will be an all-India concurrent online exam, whereas the NEXT 2 exam will be an offline-based practical exam conducted by the university/college.

NMC PGMER DRAFT 2021 - NEXT EXAM 2023 NEWS - July 30, 2021

Each academic year, admission to the postgraduate broad specialty courses will be based on the common final year undergraduate exam, to be known as the “National Exit Test” (from the day it becomes operational). The NEET-PG test will continue to be used to select Postgraduate candidates for Broad Specialty courses until it is implemented.

The National Medical Commission will determine who is authorized to perform the “National Exit Test.”

To be eligible for admission to a Postgraduate course for an academic year, a candidate must have passed the National Exit Test and be eligible for a license to practice medicine and enrollment in the State medical register or the National medical register, based on the location.

The results of the “National Exit Test” are valid for 3 years from the day the person becomes eligible for a license to practice medicine and admission to postgraduate broad specialty courses.
After the validity of the “National Exit Test” marks has expired, the person must reappear for and pass the NEXT exam in order to be eligible for admission to postgraduate broad specialty courses.

To provide your suggestions and responses on the NMC PGMER draft for the NEXT exam 2023

Withdraw PGMER DRAFT 2021, says IMA - Aug 10, 2021

IMA HQs. Press Release 09.08.2021 pic.twitter.com/Jqbjv0qXr8
— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) August 9, 2021

According to the IMA, the PGMER draft contradicts the intended role of states in promoting health as a citizen’s right.

As of now, admission to broad speciality post-graduate courses is done through NEET PG, with 50% of seats being filled through the AI quota and the remaining 50% being filled by state governments based on social justice norms and NEET PG scores from the respective state’s Directorate of Medical Education.

However, the draft regulation now states that all medical educational institutions must conduct common counselling for admission to all PG broad-specialty courses (Diploma/MD/MS) on the basis of the NEXT Exam merit list.

“The Association demands that the existing system of admission and selection criteria for PG seats be maintained, because the State medical colleges are staffed and managed by the State government’s budgets, and when not even 50% of the seats are earmarked for the respective State, the institution’s charm and priority will be lost.

This notice also states that when a student takes an exam, the marks he receives are valid for 3 years and that he can only retake the exam after that time has passed.

“This is a great injustice to the students. Because the NMC plans to hold the NEXT exams in 2023, it should develop the pattern and type of exam after more democratic engagement with students, teachers, states, and the biggest professional group, the IMA.”

The Association has demanded that the NMC withdraw this anti-federal, anti-student, anti-democratic, anti-patent care, and anti-public health draft bill and instead engage in dialogue with stakeholders to better understand the ground reality and correct course to ensure uniform educational standards.