The National Board of Examinations for Medical Sciences (NBEMS) — the apex medical examination body — has decided to introduce “time-bound” sections in the upcoming National Eligibility Entrance Test, Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024, to prevent the use of unfair practices.
Earlier, candidates had the liberty to complete all questions in the defined time frame but, from now on, the students cannot shuffle between sections — marking a significant shift for aspirants. Candidates must complete each section in the allotted time before moving on to the next one. The format does not allow candidates to review or alter their responses once the time for a section has lapsed.
“NBEMS has decided to introduce mandatory time-bound sections in all its Multiple Choice Questions-based examinations, such as NEET-PG, NEET-MDS, NEET-SS, FMGE, DNB-PDCET, GPAT, DPEE, FDST and FET which are conducted on a computer-based platform,” said the order.
According to the order, the measure has been implemented to enhance the security and sanctity of the exams in light of emerging unfair practices during the examination process.
“This technique is used to prevent the question paper from going out and then coming back as a solved paper as time available is compromised and the candidate keeps moving from segment A to E with no option of going back,” a former member of NBEMS told News18, requesting anonymity.
However, he said that from a candidate’s perspective, this scheme of exam delivery is more challenging and will be detrimental to those candidates who generally keep shuffling between questions before submitting the answers.
“Overall, indirectly a shift to this scheme acknowledges the imminent threat of unfair means in high-stakes examinations despite shifting over to computer-based testing,” the member said.
Another expert, Dr Dhruv Chauhan, national council coordinator at Indian Medical Association’s Junior Doctors’ Network, told News18 that the new pattern of 2024 is similar to international exams like the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) exams like the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET).
However, he said the board should give enough time to students to prepare as per the new pattern. “Announcing a new pattern when the exam is less than two months away is not justified,” he added.
NEET PG is scheduled to take place on June 23 this year.
How does the new format work?
This year, the question papers in these examinations will be divided into multiple time-bound sections. For example, in NEET-PG 2024, if there are five time-bound sections in the question paper, each section will have 40 questions and 42 minutes allotted.
This means that while the number of questions and time for the exam remains the same, the exam is compartmentalised into five sections. However, details of these five compartments have not been released by NBEMS yet.
Moreover, candidates will be restricted from proceeding to the next section until they complete the allotted time for the previous section.
“Additionally, candidates will not be allowed to review the questions or modify their responses for a section after the completion of its allotted time. The questions for the next section will start automatically after the completion of the allotted time for the previous section,” the order read.
Candidates are given the option to mark any question, whether attempted or not, for review. This means that candidates can go through these marked questions in a section again before the allotted time for that section ends.
“Such mandatory time-bound sections will be implemented in GPAT 2024, NEET-PG 2024 and all forthcoming computer-based tests conducted by NBEMS.”
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