New Delhi: As lakhs of students prepare every year for India’s toughest entrance examinations, a common question often emerges among aspirants and parents — why does NEET-UG follow a single-stage examination pattern while JEE is conducted in two levels, Main and Advanced?
The difference largely lies in the nature of admissions and the structure of professional courses in engineering and medicine. The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is divided into JEE Main and JEE Advanced because engineering admissions in India are spread across multiple tiers of institutions, including NITs, IIITs and the prestigious IITs. JEE Main acts as a screening examination for candidates aspiring to appear for JEE Advanced, which is meant exclusively for IIT admissions.
NEET-UG, on the other hand, functions as a unified national-level examination for admission to MBBS, BDS and several allied medical courses across the country. Since there is no separate category of elite medical institutes requiring an additional screening process, the government has continued with a single-exam format.
Experts believe that conducting NEET in two stages could significantly increase pressure on students and complicate the admission process further. The current pattern is aimed at ensuring a common merit-based system for medical admissions nationwide.
Before NEET was introduced, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) briefly experimented with a preliminary and mains format in 2010. However, the pattern was later discontinued and replaced with the present single-stage examination system.