Medical · National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS)
NEET PG — National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (PG) — MD/MS/PG Diploma admission
The complete NEET PG blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
19 subjects720 marks = your rank180 questions · 210 min Free · tutor-verified
NEET PG at a glance
Conducted byNational Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS)
CycleOnce a year (application ~Mar–Apr; exam usually in June, single sitting)
ModeComputer-based test (CBT) — 180 single-best-answer MCQs in five time-locked groups
EligibilityMBBS from an MCI/NMC-recognised institution with a permanent registration, and completion of a 12-month rotating internship by the prescribed cut-off date
LanguagesEnglish only
Admission toMD, MS and PG Diploma seats across government and private medical colleges, plus DNB and NBEMS diploma seats — filled through MCC (50% All-India Quota) and state counselling
Branches you can enter
MD RadiodiagnosisMD General MedicineMS General SurgeryMD DermatologyMS OrthopedicsMD PediatricsMS Obstetrics & GynaecologyMD AnaesthesiologyMD Psychiatry+ DNB and PG Diploma branches
⚡ What changed recently
- The paper moved from 200 questions to 180 questions (720 marks) in 210 minutes. Fewer questions in almost the same time slightly eases the clock, but every question now carries more weight toward your rank.
- The 180 questions run as five time-locked groups (A–E) of 36 questions and 42 minutes each. You can review freely inside a group, but once its 42 minutes expire the exam advances automatically and you cannot return.
- That navigation model is the single biggest strategic change. You cannot bank a hard question from Group A to revisit after Group E, so each group needs its own pacing — roughly 70 seconds per question, with uncertain ones resolved inside that window rather than deferred.
- Marking stays at +4 correct, −1 wrong, 0 unattempted. With four options, a blind guess has negative expected value; a guess after eliminating two options does not.
How NEET PG selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
YOUR ENTIRE SCORE
NEET PG exam
One 210-minute computer-based paper: 180 single-best-answer MCQs · 720 marks · +4 correct, −1 wrong. There is no separate qualifying stage and no second paper — this single score is your rank.
RANKING
Percentile cut-off & All-India Rank
Your raw score becomes an All-India Rank. You must also clear the category qualifying percentile — the 50th for General, 45th for General-PwD and 40th for SC/ST/OBC — to be eligible for counselling.
ADMISSION
Counselling & seat allotment
MCC conducts counselling for the 50% All-India Quota, deemed and central universities, AFMS and ESIC seats; states run counselling for the 50% state quota. Seats are allotted across several rounds by rank, branch preference and category.
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
NEET PG — single computer-based paper
Merit — this one paper decides your rank720 marks · 180 Q
210 minutes (3 hours 30 minutes) · +4 correct · −1 wrong · 0 unattempted
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A | 36 | 144 | Locked after 42 min |
| Group B | 36 | 144 | Locked after 42 min |
| Group C | 36 | 144 | Locked after 42 min |
| Group D | 36 | 144 | Locked after 42 min |
| Group E | 36 | 144 | Locked after 42 min |
💡 The 180 questions are split into five groups of 36, with 42 minutes locked to each group. Answers can be reviewed and changed freely within a group, but a completed group cannot be reopened — so pacing is per-group, not per-paper. NBEMS distributes subjects across all five groups and does not publish that mapping.
Where your 720 marks come from
NEET PG is a single paper — every one of the 720 marks counts straight toward your All-India Rank, and there is no interview. The syllabus is the entire MBBS course, so the real question is not what to study but what to study first. The split below is distilled from previous-year analyses, since NBEMS publishes no official subject-wise breakdown. Click any block to open its chapters:
Medicine88 marks · 12%
~22 questions and the largest single block. Clinical vignettes dominate, and Medicine also underwrites the Pharmacology and Pathology stems — the highest-leverage subject in the paper.
Surgery76 marks · 11%
~19 questions. Trauma and ATLS priorities, acute abdomen and hepatobiliary work recur every year, usually as management-sequence questions rather than recall.
Pathology60 marks · 8%
~15 questions and the most reliably scoring para-clinical subject. Hematology and neoplasia are the two biggest blocks, and both reward mechanism over memorised lists.
Obstetrics & Gynaecology56 marks · 8%
~14 questions with heavy protocol content — hypertensive disorders, postpartum haemorrhage and partogram decisions are near-certain appearances.
Pharmacology52 marks · 7%
~13 questions. Drug-of-choice and adverse-effect stems are the fastest marks in the paper once the mechanism is understood rather than the list memorised.
Microbiology44 marks · 6%
~11 questions. Bacteriology and virology carry most of it, and Indian epidemiology — TB, dengue, rabies — shapes what actually gets asked.
PSM / Community Medicine44 marks · 6%
~11 questions and the most under-prepared subject relative to its yield. Biostatistics and national health programmes are pure, learnable marks.
Anatomy40 marks · 6%
~10 questions, weighted toward neuroanatomy, head and neck, and clinically-applied embryology rather than exhaustive attachments.
Physiology40 marks · 6%
~10 questions. Cardiovascular, renal and nerve-muscle physiology dominate, and they underpin the Medicine stems as well.
Biochemistry40 marks · 6%
~10 questions. Metabolism, inborn errors and vitamin deficiencies are the recurring three; molecular biology techniques are the modern addition.
Pediatrics36 marks · 5%
~9 questions. Neonatology, immunisation schedule and developmental milestones are the reliable core, and the immunisation schedule overlaps directly with PSM.
Forensic Medicine & Toxicology24 marks · 3%
~6 questions from a small, closed syllabus. Poison antidotes and thanatology are almost guaranteed and cost very little time to secure.
Orthopedics20 marks · 3%
~5 questions. Fractures with their eponyms and complications, plus compartment syndrome, account for most of them.
ENT20 marks · 3%
~5 questions, concentrated in otology and head-and-neck tumours. A compact syllabus with an unusually high recall-to-effort ratio.
Ophthalmology20 marks · 3%
~5 questions. Glaucoma, cataract and retina are the standing three, and current trial evidence has moved the answers in glaucoma and keratitis.
Radiology16 marks · 2%
~4 questions, usually classic sign recognition and modality choice. Small, but among the easiest marks in the paper to secure.
Psychiatry16 marks · 2%
~4 questions. Psychopharmacology side effects and the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 provisions are the reliable stems.
Dermatology & Venereology16 marks · 2%
~4 questions. Hansen's disease and the genital ulcer differential recur annually, and Indian dermatophyte resistance has changed the drug answers.
Anesthesia12 marks · 2%
~3 questions, but they are formulaic: airway algorithms, local anaesthetic toxicity and neuraxial complications come up in predictable shapes.
Subjects in NEET PG
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiology | 4 | Very high |
| Endocrinology | 3 | Very high |
| Pulmonology | 3 | Very high |
| Hematology & oncology | 3 | High |
| Infectious diseases | 3 | Very high |
| Gastroenterology & hepatology | 2–3 | High |
| Nephrology | 2–3 | High |
| Rheumatology & autoimmune disease | 2 | High |
🎯 Medicine is answered as clinical vignettes, not definitions: a stem gives a presentation and asks for the next investigation, the diagnosis or the first drug. Cardiology, endocrinology, pulmonology and hematology-oncology carry most of the weight. The efficient route is to learn each condition as a mechanism that predicts its signs, so that an unfamiliar stem can still be reasoned through, and to know the Indian epidemiology that decides which diagnosis is likely in the first place.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Trauma & ATLS protocols | 3 | Very high |
| Acute abdomen & GI surgery | 3 | Very high |
| Breast & endocrine surgery | 2–3 | High |
| Hepatobiliary & pancreatic surgery | 2–3 | High |
| Urology | 2–3 | High |
| Burns & fluid resuscitation | 2 | High |
| Hernia & abdominal wall | 2 | Medium |
| Surgical infections & wound management | 2 | Medium |
🎯 Surgery stems usually ask what you do next rather than what the condition is called. Trauma and ATLS priorities, acute abdomen, hepatobiliary disease and breast surgery are the four recurring blocks. Learn each topic as an ordered protocol — what kills first, what is done in the first minute, what changes the operation — because the examiner tests the order far more often than the anatomy. Urology and hernia are small but almost always represented.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Hematology & hematological malignancies | 3–4 | Very high |
| Neoplasia | 2–3 | Very high |
| General pathology | 2–3 | High |
| Systemic pathology | 2–3 | High |
| Immunopathology & IHC markers | 2 | High |
| Renal pathology | 2 | High |
🎯 Pathology is the subject where understanding pays off fastest, because almost every clinical question in Medicine and Surgery is a pathology question in disguise. Hematology and neoplasia are the two biggest blocks; immunohistochemistry markers and renal pathology are compact, high-yield closers. Learn the mechanism that produces each morphological change, then the classic association follows rather than needing separate memorisation.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| High-risk pregnancy & hypertensive disorders | 2–3 | Very high |
| Labor & delivery | 2–3 | Very high |
| Postpartum haemorrhage & obstetric emergencies | 2 | Very high |
| Gynecological oncology | 2 | High |
| Menstrual disorders & PCOD | 2 | High |
| Infertility & assisted reproduction | 2 | High |
| National maternal-child health programmes | 1–2 | Medium |
🎯 Obstetrics is largely protocol: hypertensive disorders, postpartum haemorrhage, partogram decisions and high-risk pregnancy management follow written algorithms, so the marks are available to anyone who learns the sequence rather than the vocabulary. Gynaecology adds oncology screening, menstrual disorders and infertility. National maternal-child health programmes overlap directly with PSM, so studying them once serves both subjects.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Antimicrobial pharmacology & resistance patterns | 2–3 | Very high |
| Autonomic & cardiovascular pharmacology | 2–3 | Very high |
| Drug-of-choice / condition-based selection | 2–3 | Very high |
| CNS pharmacology | 2 | High |
| Chemotherapy & endocrine drugs | 2 | High |
| Pharmacokinetics & adverse drug reactions | 2 | High |
🎯 Pharmacology rewards a single reframing: an adverse effect is a therapeutic action in the wrong place. Once each drug class is held as one mechanism, both its indication and its side-effect profile follow, and drug-of-choice questions stop being lists to memorise. Antimicrobials with Indian resistance patterns, autonomic and cardiovascular drugs, and CNS agents are the three biggest blocks; pharmacokinetics and adverse drug reactions supply the rest.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Bacteriology | 3 | Very high |
| Virology | 2–3 | Very high |
| Immunology | 2 | High |
| Parasitology | 2 | High |
| Mycology | 1–2 | High |
🎯 Microbiology is examined through the diseases that matter in India: tuberculosis and its drug resistance, dengue, rabies, enteric fever, and the fungal infections that surged after COVID. Bacteriology and virology carry most of the weight. Learn each organism by the diagnostic test that identifies it and the single feature that separates it from its nearest look-alike, since that is the discrimination the stem is testing.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Biostatistics & epidemiology | 2–3 | Very high |
| National health programmes | 2–3 | Very high |
| Immunization & national vaccine schedule | 2 | Very high |
| Demography & vital statistics | 1–2 | High |
| Maternal & child health programmes | 1–2 | High |
| Nutrition & environmental health | 1–2 | Medium |
🎯 PSM is consistently neglected and consistently worth eleven questions, which makes it the best return on study time in the paper. Biostatistics and epidemiology are pure reasoning once the definitions are fixed; national health programmes are factual and finite. Immunisation overlaps with Pediatrics and maternal-child health overlaps with Obstetrics, so a single pass covers questions in three subjects at once.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Neuroanatomy | 2 | Very high |
| Head & neck anatomy | 2–3 | Very high |
| Embryology & developmental anomalies | 2 | High |
| Histology & genetics | 1–2 | High |
| Upper & lower limb | 1–2 | High |
| Thorax & abdomen — viscera and vessels | 1–2 | Medium |
🎯 NEET PG asks applied anatomy: which nerve is injured, which structure is compressed, which developmental failure produced this anomaly. Neuroanatomy and head and neck are the two densest blocks. The efficient method is to study each region through its clinical failures — the lesions, the entrapments, the anomalies — since that is the form every question takes, rather than reciting origins and insertions.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular physiology | 2 | Very high |
| Nerve-muscle physiology & CNS | 2–3 | Very high |
| Renal physiology | 2 | Very high |
| Respiratory physiology | 1–2 | High |
| Endocrine physiology | 1–2 | High |
| GI physiology | 1 | Medium |
🎯 Physiology is worth more than its ten questions, because the reasoning it teaches is what makes Medicine answerable. Cardiovascular, renal and nerve-muscle physiology dominate both the direct questions and the indirect ones. Work in curves and pressures rather than isolated values: knowing what shifts a curve and why explains the acid-base question, the shock question and the ventilation question in one move.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Enzymology & metabolism | 2–3 | Very high |
| Molecular biology | 2–3 | Very high |
| Inborn errors & lysosomal storage diseases | 1–2 | High |
| Vitamins & nutrition | 1–2 | High |
| Acid-base & electrolyte balance | 1–2 | High |
| Hormones & signal transduction | 1 | Medium |
🎯 Biochemistry is examined as a set of blocked pathways: an enzyme fails, a substrate accumulates, and a recognisable clinical picture follows. Learning it that way turns inborn errors, vitamin deficiencies and metabolic disorders into one method instead of three lists. Molecular biology techniques are the modern addition and are worth a dedicated pass, since they are asked in a factual, quickly-secured form.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Neonatology | 2 | Very high |
| Growth & developmental milestones | 2 | Very high |
| Immunization schedule | 1–2 | Very high |
| Pediatric infectious diseases | 1–2 | High |
| Genetic & congenital disorders | 1–2 | High |
| Nutrition & malnutrition | 1 | High |
🎯 Pediatrics rests on a small reliable core: neonatal resuscitation and neonatal problems, developmental milestones, the national immunisation schedule, and malnutrition classification. The immunisation schedule overlaps exactly with PSM, so it is learned once and counted twice. Milestone questions are pure recall and should be secured completely, since they cost nothing in reasoning time during a locked 42-minute group.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Toxicology & poison antidotes | 1–2 | Very high |
| Injuries & wound ballistics | 1–2 | High |
| Medico-legal aspects & criminal law provisions | 1–2 | High |
| Thanatology | 1 | High |
| Asphyxial deaths | 1 | Medium |
🎯 Forensic Medicine has the best marks-per-page ratio in the paper because the syllabus genuinely ends. Poison antidotes, thanatology and injury patterns account for most questions and are almost pure recall. The medico-legal section now needs the current criminal law provisions rather than the older code numbers, which is the one place where outdated revision material actively costs marks.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Fractures & dislocations | 1–2 | Very high |
| Orthopedic trauma & compartment syndrome | 1 | Very high |
| Bone tumors | 1 | High |
| Infections | 1 | High |
| Congenital & pediatric orthopedics | 0–1 | Medium |
| Osteoarthritis & rheumatological bone disease | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Orthopedics questions almost always turn on one of three things: which fracture carries which named complication, how the growing skeleton differs from the adult one, and what makes compartment syndrome an emergency. Learning fractures by the blood supply they threaten rather than by eponym alone answers both the naming question and the complication question at once.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Otology | 1–2 | Very high |
| Head & neck tumors | 1 | Very high |
| Rhinology | 1 | High |
| Laryngology & airway | 1 | High |
| Pediatric ENT emergencies | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 ENT is small enough to finish properly, which is exactly why it should be. Otology supplies the most questions: where the block is, and how long the vertigo lasts, answer almost all of them. Head and neck tumours add staging and field-disease reasoning, and rhinology reduces to drainage through the osteomeatal complex. Pediatric emergencies are few but decisive when they appear.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Glaucoma | 1 | Very high |
| Retina | 1 | Very high |
| Cataract & lens disorders | 1 | High |
| Cornea & external eye disease | 1 | High |
| Neuro-ophthalmology | 1 | High |
| Squint & pediatric ophthalmology | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Ophthalmology is examined through a handful of decisions: which red eye is an emergency, which visual field defect localises where, and which treatment current evidence actually supports. Recent trial results have moved the answers in glaucoma and in fungal keratitis, so revision material more than a few years old is unreliable here in a way it is not in most subjects.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Chest & cardiac imaging | 1 | Very high |
| CNS imaging | 1 | Very high |
| Abdominal imaging | 1 | High |
| Musculoskeletal imaging | 0–1 | Medium |
| Radiotherapy principles & radiation oncology | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Radiology questions come in two shapes: name the classic sign, and choose the right modality. Both are answerable from one principle — which tissue property distinguishes the target from its background — so the modality question is not separate memorisation. Chest and CNS imaging supply most of the questions, and radiotherapy principles add a small predictable block.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Psychopharmacology | 1 | Very high |
| Mood disorders | 1 | Very high |
| Psychotic disorders | 1 | High |
| Substance use disorders | 1 | High |
| Anxiety & neurotic disorders | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Psychiatry is worth four questions and takes very little time to secure, because the examinable content is narrow. Psychopharmacology side effects, the manic-episode question that separates bipolar from unipolar illness, which withdrawal states can kill, and the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 provisions cover nearly everything asked. The Act is recent enough that older material gets it wrong.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Hansen's disease | 1 | Very high |
| Sexually transmitted infections | 1 | Very high |
| Infective dermatoses | 1 | High |
| Papulosquamous disorders | 1 | High |
| Immunobullous disorders | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Dermatology is examined through pattern recognition with a small number of decisive discriminators: the level of the blister split, whether the ulcer is painful and how many there are, and what the scale tells you about the epidermis. Hansen's disease appears every year and carries Indian programme data with it. Dermatophyte resistance has changed the first-line drug answer, so current material matters here.
| Topic | Est. Qs | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Airway management & difficult airway | 1 | Very high |
| General anesthesia drugs & protocols | 1 | Very high |
| Regional & spinal anesthesia | 0–1 | High |
| Anesthetic complications & monitoring | 0–1 | High |
| Critical care & ventilator management | 0–1 | Medium |
🎯 Anesthesia contributes only about three questions, but they are unusually formulaic and therefore worth securing: airway assessment and the difficult airway algorithm, induction agent choice in the shocked patient, local anaesthetic toxicity with its lipid emulsion antidote, and the neuraxial complications of total spinal and post-dural puncture headache. Learn those four and the subject is effectively finished.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
NEET PG is a single computer-based paper of 180 single-best-answer MCQs worth 720 marks, in 210 minutes. Each correct answer earns +4, each wrong answer loses 1 mark, and unattempted questions score zero. Every question has exactly four options, and calculators are not permitted.
The 180 questions are split into five groups (A to E) of 36 questions, with 42 minutes allotted to each. You can review and change answers freely inside a group, but once its 42 minutes expire the exam advances automatically and that group cannot be reopened. This is the single biggest strategic difference from a freely-navigable paper: you cannot defer a hard question from an early group to revisit at the end, so each group needs its own pacing at roughly 70 seconds per question.
No. NBEMS does not publish a subject-wise split, and it does not disclose how subjects are distributed across the five groups. The counts shown on this page are estimates distilled from previous-year paper analyses and calibrated to the 180-question format. Use them to prioritise study time, not as a prediction of any single attempt.
Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Pharmacology together account for roughly half the paper, so they come first. The subject most often under-prepared relative to its yield is PSM, which is worth about eleven questions of largely learnable factual and statistical content. Anesthesia, Radiology, Psychiatry and Dermatology are small but formulaic, and each can be finished properly in a fraction of the time a large subject needs.
You must score at or above the category qualifying percentile: the 50th percentile for General, 45th for General-PwD, and 40th for SC/ST/OBC. Qualifying only makes you eligible for counselling — the actual cut-offs for a competitive branch are far higher, and vary by branch, state and quota every cycle.
With four options and −1 for a wrong answer against +4 for a correct one, a blind guess has an expected value of zero, and a guess made in a hurry is usually worse than blind. Eliminating even one option makes guessing clearly positive. Because a group locks after 42 minutes, the decision has to be made inside that window rather than deferred, which is why eliminating options quickly matters more here than in a freely-navigable paper.
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