NEET 2018 application form to be available in January 2018

The examination will most likely be held on May 10, 2018.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to issue application forms for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2018 in January. While there has been no notification issued on the official website cbseneet.nic.in as yet, media reports indicated that the examination will be most likely held on May 10, 2018. The application fee payment facility will be closed in first week of March 2018.

Reportedly, the NEET 2018 results are likely to be announce in the first week of July 2018. Admissions based on NEET results will begin in deemed universities from July 10 and will be concluded by August 2018.

CBSE NEET
An entrance examination for undergraduate MBBS and BDS (dental) courses, NEET is mandatory for admission to government-aided and private colleges across the country.

NEET 2017 was conducted on May 7, 2017. The official date for the exam was released in January 2017. Nearly 65,170 MBBS and 25,730 BDS seats were to be assigned through the entrance test. About 470 medical colleges and 308 Dental colleges took part in the official admission process based on NEET results. Out of the 10,90,085 students who appeared in NEET exam, 6,11,539 passed the NEET 2017.

Eligibility criteria
Students interested in applying for NEET should be class 12th (senior secondary) pass or currently in class 12 from the state board or from a recognized university. Candidates should have Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biotechnology or any other elective subject with English on the syllabus. Also, general category students should have secured minimum 50 percent marks in PCB group. The limit is relaxed to 45 percent for general physically handicapped (PH) and 40 percent for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe/other backward caste (SC/ST/OBC) categories.

The minimum age required to apply for NEET 2018 is 17 years (for all category). The maximum age limit for candidates of unreserved category (UR) is 25 years as on December 31, 2018. The limit is relaxed 5 years for the SC/ST/OBC (non-creamy layer)/PH candidates as per the government rule.

Important points
Like rest of examinations conducted by the center, Aadhaar card will be a mandatory requirement for form submission. Reportedly, the mobile number and email ID entered during registration must be candidate's own or their parents. All official communications regarding the exam will be sent to these communication points

As per NEET 2017 notification released by CBSE, the number of attempts for NEET will be capped at 3. The attempts will be counted from NEET 2017 entrance test.

Scheme of examination
Like in 2017, NEET 2018 is expected to be conducted in pen and paper or offline mode. The paper would be an objective paper with 180 Multiple Choice Questions. About 45 questions would be asked from Physics and Chemistry each while 90 would be from Biology.

In 2017, NEET was conducted in eight languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Oriya and Kannada. In 2018, as per a Supreme Court order, it is likely that Urdu would be included as a medium as well.

Vernacular or regional language options are expected to be provided only to candidates appearing for the NEET examination from that state. For instance, Marathi language option would be given only to candidates writing the NEET examination in the state of Maharashtra. English and Hindi medium, however, would be available to all the candidates across the country.