NEET PG 2025: Doctors Seek a Roll-back of the Double Shift Entrance Exam Model

Updated on Apr 22, 2025 23:03

The concerns were brought before the Supreme Court as aspirants sought transparency in the NEET PG 2024 exam.

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Kolkata: Doctors have approached the Union Health Ministry, requesting prompt intervention to revoke the decision to hold the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate Exam 2025 in two shifts. Their appeal stems from concerns about a lack of transparency and alleged disparities between the different exam shifts. The reason for this appeal is citing a lack of transparency and alleged disparities between exam shifts.

According to the announcement made by NBEMS, they made it clear that NEET PG 2025 would be held in two sessions on June 15, 2025, with the first shift from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM and the second from 3:30 PM to 7:00 PM. In their letter to the Health Ministry, doctors from IMA-JDN stated that the two-shift model for NEET PG 2024 was justified by insufficient time for center allocation and security arrangements, but they argue that "no such problem exists this year."

Doctors also highlighted that even though NBEMS and NMC implemented a normalization process last year following concerns about shift disparities, the process was flawed. Referring to the previous year's postgraduate medical entrance exam, IMA-JDN pointed out allegations of significant difficulty differences between the two shifts of NEET PG 2024. They emphasized that the "primary issue with the two-shift model is the lack of transparency in the normalisation process," noting widespread observations that Shift 2 was considerably harder, leading to score and ranking disparities that affected deserving candidates and caused uncertainty and demoralization.

Indranil Deshmukh, national secretary of the IMA-JDN standing committee, expressed serious concern for the approximately two lakh NEET PG aspirants who might face the same issues as the previous year. He stated that "NEET PG 2025 is again being held in two shifts, despite the absence of any logistical urgency this year." Further criticized he stated, "lack of transparency in the normalisation process, unequal difficulty levels across shifts, and denial of access to answer keys and response sheets," which have raised genuine fairness concerns among candidates. Dr. Deshmukh urged authorities to consider a single-shift exam, ensure transparent score calculation, and increase centers to cover all districts, emphasizing that "just and transparent process is essential to uphold the credibility of medical education and protect the aspirations of our young doctors."

Doctors further noted that the reasons given for the two shifts for NEET PG 2024 limited time for center allocation and security. Especially due to exam rescheduling and a large number of candidates are not applicable this year. They warned that scheduling the exam in two shifts without such logistical constraints "raises genuine concerns among aspirants" and diminishes the examination process's credibility.

Several applicants who took the second shift of NEET PG 2024 questioned the normalization technique utilized by NBEMS, calling it a "scam" because of the apparent difficulty differential between shifts. They claimed that the Shift 2 exam was more difficult, and that the scoring method was dubious.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Ans: The reasons cited were a lack of sufficient time to allocate exam centers and ensure security protocols, particularly due to the exam being rescheduled and involving a large number of candidates.

Ans: They are urging the authorities to conduct the exam in a single shift, ensure transparency in score calculation, and potentially expand the number of exam centers to all districts.

Ans: Doctors fear that aspirants may face the same issues as last year, including score disparities, unfair rankings, and a sense of uncertainty and demoralization.

Ans: Doctors warn that it could diminish the credibility of the examination process and negatively impact the aspirations of young doctors.