NEET PG 2025 Examination in Two Shifts Arises Argument; Doctors Call for Single Shift Exam

NEET PG 2025: The National Board of Examination in Medical Science (NBEMS) released an official notification on 17th March 2025 confirming the NEET PG 2025 Examination date. The NEET PG 2025 Exam is going to be held on 15th June 2025 in CBT (Computer Based Test) mode and this year the exam will be conducted in Two Shifts; Shift 1: 9 AM to 12:30 PM and Shift 2: 3:30 PM to 7 PM.

The proposal to administer NEET PG 2025 in two shifts has raised serious concerns among stakeholders and candidates over the exam’s fairness and normalization process.

The decision to administer the NEET PG exam in two shifts has deterred many candidates training for PG medical admissions, as it is the most anticipated exam for postgraduate medical admissions and attracts the attention of thousands of stakeholders.

Numerous groups, such as the UDF CMJ Doctors Welfare Federation India and the Right to Information (RTI) and Medical Education campaigner Vivek Pandey, have addressed letters to Jagat Prakash Nadda and the medical exam body requesting a single-shift exam. The physicians brought up concerns about the inequity of the normalisation procedure, its efficacy, the strain that candidates face in relation to their rankings, and legal conflicts. The medical organisations contended that the one-shift exam would enable a consistent evaluation, legal stability, aspirant confidence, and openness and confidence.

However, this statement has caused anxiety among the competitors, and several of them criticized the choice on X (formerly Twitter). The concerns are related to the debate that surrounded the normalization procedure last year. Many candidates worry that the same problems might arise again.

A doctor tweeted, “NBEMS has announced NEET PG 2025 in two shifts despite the normalization mess in 2024!” in exasperation…. Why make the same errors again? Additionally, the Unified Doctors Front (UDF) has written to Health Minister JP Nadda to request that the two-shift arrangement be re-examined.

UDF National President Dr. Lakshya Mittal discussed the problems with the two-shift NEET PG Exam, saying, “NBEMS’s decision to administer the NEET-PG 2025 in two shifts is extremely alarming and requires prompt reexamination. The NEET-PG 2024 normalisation process caused serious inconsistencies, legal issues, and anxiety in applicants. Multiple shifts create irregularities that undermine the integrity of the examination rather than guaranteeing a fair assessment.”

While the government strives for “One Nation, One Election,” some users emphasised the irony by pointing out that it has not succeeded in implementing “One Nation, One Exam.” Another post explained how the difference in difficulty across shifts affects merit and referred to the normalisation method as a “deeply flawed statistical gimmick.”

NEET PG Exam in Two Shifts: Issues and Difficulties

1. To ensure that candidates receive comparable scores, the NEET PG exam will be administered in two shifts using a normalisation procedure.
2. Nonetheless, there were claims of inappropriate normalisation process conduct in NEET PG last year.
3. Many students expressed anxiety over the NEET PG exam in two shifts, claiming that it makes them feel less confident and stressed.
4. Numerous stakeholders have questioned the exam’s sanctity and brought up the fair grading because it was administered in two shifts.