NEET for PG Exam: Eligibility, Syllabus & Exam Pattern

NEET for PG — commonly written as NEET PG — is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses, the mandatory entrance exam every MBBS graduate in India must clear to pursue an MD, MS, or PG Diploma. Conducted once a year by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), NEET PG 2026 is scheduled for 30 August 2026, with results expected by 30 September 2026. This guide explains what the NEET for PG exam covers, who is eligible, and how it's structured — for the seat-allotment process that follows, see our separate NEET PG counselling guide.

Key Takeaways

• NEET for PG is the mandatory entrance exam for MD, MS, and PG Diploma admission in India, conducted once a year by NBEMS.

• NEET PG 2026 is scheduled for 30 August 2026, a computer-based test of 200 MCQs across pre-clinical, para-clinical, and clinical subjects.

• Eligibility for NEET for PG requires an MBBS degree (or provisional pass certificate), a completed one-year rotating internship, and valid medical council registration.

• The qualifying cutoff is the 50th percentile for Unreserved/EWS candidates, 40th for SC/ST/OBC, and 45th for Unreserved-PwD, recalculated fresh each year.

• NMC's proposed National Exit Test (NExT) has not replaced NEET for PG as of mid-2026; NExT Step 1 remains scheduled for February 2028, so NEET PG stays the operative postgraduate entrance exam for now.

What Is NEET for PG?

NEET for PG is the single national entrance exam that determines admission to India's postgraduate medical courses — MD (Doctor of Medicine), MS (Master of Surgery), and PG Diploma programs — for every MBBS graduate seeking specialization. It is conducted by NBEMS, while the resulting seat-allotment counselling is handled separately by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and state authorities. There is no direct-admission route to a recognized PG medical seat in India outside this exam.

Who Is Eligible for NEET for PG?

Eligibility for NEET for PG rests on three core requirements:

1. Medical degree: Candidates must hold an MBBS degree or a provisional MBBS pass certificate from an NMC-recognized (or erstwhile MCI-recognized) medical college.

2. Internship completion: A mandatory one-year rotating internship must be completed by the cutoff date NBEMS specifies each cycle; candidates likely to finish by that date are also eligible to apply.

3. Medical council registration: Candidates must hold a valid provisional or permanent registration certificate from the NMC or a State Medical Council.

Foreign nationals no longer need temporary MCI/NMC enrollment to sit the exam itself, but must obtain temporary registration once they begin their postgraduate course.

What Is the NEET for PG Exam Pattern?

What Does the NEET for PG Syllabus Cover?

The NEET PG syllabus spans every subject taught during the MBBS course, organized into three broad categories: Pre-Clinical (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry), Para-Clinical (Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine, Social and Preventive Medicine), and Clinical subjects (General Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pediatrics, ENT, Orthopedics, Radiology, Dermatology, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry, Ophthalmology). General Medicine, including Dermatology, Venereology, ENT, and Psychiatry, tends to carry the highest weightage across recent papers. For background on NBEMS's role as India's postgraduate medical examination board, see Wikipedia's overview of the National Board of Examinations.

What Is the Cutoff for NEET for PG?

To qualify, candidates must clear NBEMS's percentile cutoff for their category: the 50th percentile for Unreserved/EWS candidates, the 40th percentile for SC/ST/OBC candidates (including PwD within these categories), and the 45th percentile for Unreserved-PwD candidates. The exact raw score equivalent to each percentile is recalculated every year based on that cycle's difficulty and candidate distribution, so any specific score quoted for a past year should be treated as historical reference, not a fixed target for 2026.

Does the National Exit Test Replace NEET for PG?

Not yet. NMC's proposed National Exit Test (NExT) is designed to eventually absorb this exam's role in postgraduate admission, but as of mid-2026 that transition has not happened. NMC's own academic calendar sets NExT Step 1 for February 2028, for the MBBS batch that began in 2023-24, so NEET for PG remains the active postgraduate entrance exam for every MBBS graduate applying in the current cycle. Our National Exit Test explainer covers the full NExT timeline and structure if you want to understand what changes once it eventually launches.

How Many Seats Are at Stake in NEET for PG?

India had 82,059 postgraduate medical seats as of 2025, up from 31,185 in 2014, per the Union Health Ministry's reply to Parliament — a scale of competition that makes the exam's percentile-based cutoff, rather than a fixed pass mark, the real determinant of whether you can proceed to counselling at all.

What Happens After Clearing NEET for PG?

Clearing NEET for PG only qualifies you to register for counselling — it does not itself allot a seat. Seat allocation runs through the MCC for All India Quota, deemed, central-university, and ESIC seats, and through individual state authorities for state-quota seats, across registration, choice-filling, seat allotment, and reporting stages. Our dedicated NEET PG counselling guide covers the full 2026 dates, fees, required documents, and the Supreme Court's domicile-reservation ruling in depth. For the wider picture of where this exam fits among post-MBBS options — including NEET-SS, INI-CET, and non-clinical careers — see our what-after-MBBS guide.