What You Should Learn from the NEET Marks vs Rank Past Year Trends.

Are you researching the marks you want to aim for before you start the NEET preparation? Are you worried after looking at the marks tren for the past four years? 

Well, I have been in your place and yes, it is overwhelming. It is very unnerving to see the marks vs rank trends. The NEET ranks have inflated in the past 4 years. It is due to a lot of factors like an increase in demand for MBBS, an increase in the number of applicants, a change in eligibility criteria, and an easy paper. 

NEET overview

“NEET” for “National Eligibility cum Entrance Test”. It is a national-level exam in India used to determine eligibility for admission to medical and dental colleges.

What is NEET? It is the only undergraduate entrance exam that leads to admissions in MBBS, BDS, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, etc.

Last year in 2023, more than 20 lac students appeared for the NEET exam. And, there are only about 1 lac MBBS seats. Out of these 1 lac seats, only 50 thousand seats are government seats which are subsidised. These government seats and colleges allow you to pursue your MBBS at very low fees ranging from Rs 5000 to 1 lac a year. 

The rest of the MBBS seats belong to private colleges where the MBBS course fees for 5 years range from 50 lacs to 2.5 crores. It is very expensive to be able to afford this. If you can afford this, know that you are very lucky. 

So all in all because of these 2 factors – a high number of applicants and a very low number of desired government seats, NEET is considered as a very competitive and tough exam.

NEET Exam Pattern 2024 and Total Marks

A maximum of 720 marks are required for the NEET exam 2024, which consists of 180 questions worth a total of 4 marks each. Parts A and B represent a recent modification to the NEET format.

• Section A: Under Section A, 35 questions are asked for Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. This part has no choice; students must respond to every question. Sections A and B both have negative markings. A total of 140 marks—35 times 4—can be earned in this section.
• Section B: Out of the 15 questions offered, candidates may attempt any 10 of them. So, Only the first 10 questions a candidate attempts will be considered if they have attempted more than 10.
  The maximum number of points that may be earned in this segment is 40, or 10*4 points. Thus, each section—Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Zoology—can be passed with a total score of 140 + 40 = 180. Each of the 180 marks for the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology sections is combined with the 360 marks for Biology.

NEET Total Marks and Duration

Moving on to the total marks and duration. NEET is a 720-mark OMR-based examination. Every correct answer contributes to the total score, and the cumulative score from all questions determines the candidate’s rank and eligibility for medical admissions.

The duration of the exam is 3.20 hours, equivalent to 200 minutes.

So, Candidates have to tackle all 200 questions across the three subjects, out of which only 180 questions need to be attempted.

These 3.20 hours teach you the importance of time management in an exam like NEET.

The exam comprises many topics and questions, so time management is essential to answer all questions.

Thus, Time management becomes a challenge for most candidates. Allocating time to each section based on its weight and your comfort level is the key to successfully attempting the NEET paper.

NEET 2024 Exam Difficulty Level

The NEET question paper is designed to assess candidates’ depth of understanding and application skills. Questions are curated to span a spectrum of difficulty levels, ranging from relatively easier questions to those that challenge even the most adept students. This ensures that the exam evaluates candidates’ conceptual clarity and problem-solving abilities.

IS NEET 2024 GOING TO BE DIFFICULT?

NEET Exam Pattern 2024 and Marking Scheme

The NEET marking scheme 2024 is as follows:

• Each question has 4 marks.
• For each question, the right response earns 4 marks.
• For each wrong response, 1 mark is deducted.
• If more than one option is determined to be accurate after a key is challenged, any/all of the highlighted multiple correct possibilities will receive 4 marks.
• If a question is not attempted or answered, no marks are given.
• 4 marks will be given to everyone who attempted the question if all of the options are determined to be accurate.

The NEET exam uses a specific marking scheme to calculate the final score. For every correct answer, candidates get +4 marks. For every incorrect answer, however, a negative marking of -1 is applied. This ensures that you stay away from guessing.

Considering that you get only 1 minute for each question, you need to be excellent at quick decision-making (a skill you’d use as a doctor in emergencies). This quality can set you apart from the competition. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and more PRACTICE. To learn more about how to attempt the paper, click here.

Past Year Trends – NEET Marks vs Ranks 

NEET 2023 Tie-breaking Policy

The competition for the NEET 2023 Examination is fierce, therefore two students may achieve the same score. To address this issue, the NTA has implemented a tie-breaking guideline for students, which includes:

In the event of the same marks, the student with higher marks in the Biology course would be considered.
If there is still a tie, the student with the higher mark in the Chemistry subject will be considered.
If there is still a tie, the student with the fewest number of erroneous questions in the exam will be considered.
If the circumstance remains unfavorable, the elder student will be given preference over the other.

NEET Marks Vs Rank Trend

These marks vs rank trend are of NEET 2023. This a rough estimate of how what your rank will be against a specific NEET score. These may change every year, so only take a rough estimate. If you want a get a rank of 5000, add 10 marks to the NEET 2023 score required for 5000 rank (645+10= 655) and aim for that.

Topper list of NEET 2023

Prabhanjan J  and Bora Varun Chakravarthi were jointly declared as All-India toppers in NEET 2023. They secured a total of 720 marks out of 720 marks with 99.999901 percentile.

• Rank 1: Prabanjan J, Bora Varun Chakravarthi (720 marks)
• Rank 3: Kaustav Bauri (716)
• Rank 4: Pranjal Aggarwal (715)
• Rank 5: Dhruv Advani (715)
• Rank 6: Surya Siddharth N (715)
• Rank 7: Shriniketh Ravi (715)
• Rank 8: Swayam Shakti Tripathy (715)
• Rank 9: Varun S (715)
• Rank 10: Parth Khandelwal (715)
• Rank 11: Ashika Aggarwal (715)
• Rank 12: Sayan Pradhan (715)
• Rank 13: Harshit Bansal (715)
• Rank 14: Shashank Kumar (715)
• Rank 15: Kanchani Geyanth Raghu Ram Reddy (715)
• Rank 16: Shubhamm Bansal (715)
• Rank 17: Bhaskar Kumar (715)
• Rank 18: Dev Bhatia (715)
• Rank 19: Arnab Pati (715)
• Rank 20: Shashank Sinha (715)

NEET 2022 Marks vs Rank Based on Previous Year Analysis

Below, candidates can find the NEET 2023 Marks vs Rank statistics based on the previous year’s analysis.

NEET Marks vs Rank 2022

Check the comparison of NEET Marks vs Rank 2022 below the given table.

NEET Marks vs Rank 2021

Check the comparison of NEET Marks vs Rank 2021 in the table given below.

NEET Marks vs Rank 2020

NEET Aspirants can check the comparison data of NEET Mark vs Rank 2020 in the table given below.

NEET Marks vs Rank 2019

Check the NEET Marks vs Rank 2019 comparison table given below.

Factors Affecting the NEET Rank vs Marks

There are a lot of factors that have led to the massive inflation in NEET ranks in the past 4 years. Now the problem with rank inflation is that it has become incredibly easy to get a good score in the NEET paper due to changes in the pattern of the exam.

The syllabus of the exam has been strictly confined to the NCERT textbooks, so a lot of students are now scoring similar marks. So, even if you are scoring 700 marks 30 other students would score the same but would get different ranks based on the tiebreaker policy.

Earlier, the paper used to be difficult, especially the physics and chemistry part, so people who had practised questions up to JEE Mains could only score better, and there was a clear-cut distinction in the marks vs rank like 2019.

Several factors affecting the NEET marks vs Rank 2024 are:

Difficulty of NEET Question Paper 2024

The NEET question paper difficulty has reduced significantly from 2019. Now, how do I define NEET difficulty level? The syllabus and the question level. Earlier, every subject had questions that were not directly from NCERT. The questions were from Biology reference books or JEE mains. So students had to enroll in coaching and read topics outside NCERT to be able to score the maximum they could out of 720. Still, no one could score more than 680 or 690 and never did they score 720/720.

It was only after NTA came into practice in 2019 that the syllabus was properly defined and restricted to the NCERT’s. Now questions started coming from each and every line of NCERT’s and this confined the syllabus for NEET. People could just now read NCERT’s and score 650 very easily.

This also reduced the dependency of students to enrol in expensive coaching. (which was what NTA has aimed to reduce the financial disparity among applicants.). This gave a fair chance to everyone to be able to get admission to MBBS.

Online Coaching and Courses

One word: Physicswallah. You might only have discovered him right now. But it was when I was in 12th that he started his YouTube journey. I have followed his journey from scratch. I remember I used to wait for his videos so eagerly, and I feel I was very connected to sir because I could understand the effort it took to do what he was trying to do. I respect and love sir so much. He truly revolutionalised online education.

The moment he started getting viral for uploading such high-quality educational content for free on YouTube, people realised the monopoly of coaching on competitive exams. He single-handedly brought so many coaching companies to the online mode and this also forced them to reduce the cost of subscriptions they offered, be it NEET or JEE Mains.

Sir now is known as the Physicswallah. It is a brand and he is now an entrepreneur. And what commendable work he has been doing. He offers his NEET courses for such a small amount of money and in so many regional languages.

You know him as Physicswallah and the company. I have followed him since we used to fondly call him “Alakh sir” and used to wait to hear his “hello bachcho” every day.

Earlier, NEET and other competitive exams were reserved for Kota city. With the rise of the Internet era, coachings were forced to go online. And especially during and after COVID, the online coaching industry boomed. This made quality education accessible and widespread. Everyone could learn the same topics in the comfort of their homes. You could learn a single topic from tens and hundreds of free resources on Youtube. This reduced the coaching monopoly and allowed students to be more prepared for the exam. Thus competition grew and ranks inflated.

Number of applicants in NEET 2023 vs NEET 2024

The number of applicants in NEET 2023 was close to 20 lacs. And the number of MBBS seats is just 1 lac. That too, government seats are only 50,000.

During COVID, many businesses shut down and a lot of people lost their jobs. Doctors were at the forefront of the battle against COVID. People saw the stability and safety behind the doctor’s profession. They also saw the respect a doctor gets. This attracted the masses towards the medical profession. And, so began the increase in demand for doctors. Thus, NEET saw a steep rise in the number of applications.

Demand for Doctors and Security of the Medical Profession

Even today, with the recession hitting the world, the only profession that is still very stable is the medical profession. A doctor can never run out of a job, no matter what the situation. Even if no corporate jobs are available, doctors can always set up their clinics and they will always be in business.

So the stability truly is remarkable. People understood this during the COVID period and thus the number of applications saw a steep increase in 2020.

How to tackle the pressure of the NEET competition?

Simple and short advice? NCERT.

Earlier the NEET exam was used to check the depth of your knowledge. It checked if you know everything and anything about a topic in any subject. So naturally, difficult questions outside of NCERT books were asked and there was no defined syllabus.

But, now the syllabus has been defined to the point. And to avoid any disparity, it has been restricted to NCERT. Now, the paper is about how accurately you can solve a question paper and not about the depth and range of your knowledge.

The syllabus is same for everyone, right? So what will help you stand out and get a better rank?

Your number and types of questions you have practised. Your time management. Your mathematical calculations. Remembering each and every line of NCERT. NEET specific Mock tests. That’s it.

How to ace these 5 points? Read our “How to score 720/720 in NEET”

If you ace these 5 points and do them right, you can easily score 720/720.

Practising questions has become more important than revising your syllabus again and again. You should rather revise through practising questions. Say, if you want to revise a Biology chapter. Instead of reading NCERT (if you have already read it twice or thrice), solve a question bank that has questions based on each and every line of that NCERT Biology Chapter.

For physics and chemistry, practice DIFFERENT types of questions for each concept. NEET is a speed and accuracy game now. You can’t spend more than 3 minutes in solving any question. So, how can you increase your speed? By practising each and every type of question format on every concept. Use different question banks. The more questions you have practised, your mind will think “Oh I have practised this question before” , if it comes in your NEET paper. And, that’s how you increase your speed, confidence and accuracy.

Conclusion:

• Read each and every line of NCERT and remember it.
• Do NCERT-based question banks especially for Biology and Inorganic Chemistry.
• Practice all the question formats a lot of times.
• Try to practice questions on all the concepts in Chemistry and Physics.
• For Physics and Chemistry, get a comprehensive question bank that has a lot of questions on each and every topic and practice from that.