In this article, we’ll be analyzing the NEET 2017 exam. This information will be useful for all the students who appeared for the exam, as well as the students who are aspiring to take NEET 2018 or 2019.

Relevance of this analysis

NEET is a new exam and a lot of confusion surrounds the students regarding this exam. With this analysis, we’ll try to dispel this confusion and will give students tips to approach this exam with ease.

NEET Exam Overview

XI-XII Question Distribution

Here is the question distribution for NEET 2017 for classes 11th and 12th.

Subject	No. of Questions
	XI	XII	Total
Physics	22	23	45
Chemistry	18	27	45
Bio	50	40	90
Total	90	90	180

Observing the overall trend, we can see that for Physics and Chemistry, more of the questions came from 12th class and for physics, this difference is marginal. For Biology, we have more questions from Class 11th. The overall distribution of questions was even with 90 questions from both Class 11th and Class 12th.

 

To understand the question distribution further and to generalise the statements let’s take a look at the previous year’s question distribution in comparison to this year:

 

Grade	No. of Questions
	NEET 2016 (I)	NEET 2016 (II)	NEET 2017
11	PCB=(22+17+45)=84	PCB=(22+24+47)=93	90
12	PCB=(23+28+45)=96	PCB=(23+21+43)=87	90
Total	180	180	180

 

We can see that the major fluctuation mostly occurs due to Chemistry and somewhat due to Biology. However, Physics is always equally balanced between both the classes. It can also be seen from the trend that number of questions are always balanced between Class 11th and Class 12th which shows us that both classes are equally important.

 

NOTE: Biology always has either equal or more weightage for class 11th than class 12th.

 

Chapter and section distribution

 

Now, let’s look into the chapter and section-wise distribution for Physics for NEET 2017 as compared to previous year:

 

Physics	2017	2016 (II)	2016 (I)
Mechanics	10	11	12
Electromagnetism	10	11	10
Optics	5	5	5
Heat, Thermal, Properties of matter	7	7	7
Modern Physics	8	7	8
Waves, SHM	4	3	3
Error, Experimental Skills	1	1	0

 

We can see that majority of the questions come from 4 major topics, i.e. Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Heat and Modern Physics. We can also see that distribution for questions has remained almost the same for all the topics. This shows us that we have to put up more effort on these topics.

 

For Chemistry:

 

Chemistry	2017	2016 (II)	2016 (I)
Organic	16	17	16
Inorganic	16	12	16
Physical	13	16	13

 

In chemistry, we can see that weightage has not changed much. In the second exam of NEET last year however, Physical chemistry’s questions were increased in number, decreasing the number of questions from inorganic chemistry. From this trend, we can surely say that Organic is always the major part in chemistry and questions in physical and inorganic chemistry vary.

 

For Biology:

 

Biology	2017	2016 (II)	2016 (I)
Diversity In The Living World	11	10	11
Structural Organisation In Plants And Animals	8	9	8
Cell: Structure And Functions	7	9	8
Plant Physiology	7	7	7
Human Physiology	17	12	11
Reproduction	9	12	11
Genetics And Evolution	13	12	12
Biology In Human Welfare	6	4	5
Biotechnology	4	4	6
Ecology	8	11	11

 

Biology is the largest part out of the 3 subjects with twice the number of questions. The trend for biology has also not fluctuated much with Human Psychology and Genetics being still in the lead. However, this year we can see that ‘Human Psychology’ section had more weight.

Also, there is a common tendency in the students to skip Ecology in Biology. Observing from the trend, 8 questions came from Ecology this year which were even less than the previous year giving us a hint that no section should be left untouched if you want to score well.

 

Difficulty distribution

NEET 2017

	Physics	Chemistry	Biology
Easy	17	17	41
Medium	22	27	40
Hard	6	1	9

 

Physics was a bit difficult compared to Bio and Chemistry. The percentage of difficult questions was highest in Physics. Biology was also relatively difficult, while Chemistry was the easiest out of the three. Even though there is about 1 minute per question on an average, in Physics you will need more time per question due to higher difficulty and more calculations.

 

Students should plan their paper such that you spend less time on Chemistry and Biology, and leave more time for Physics.

The time spent on the subjects should be about – Chem – 40 mins, Bio – 60 mins, Phy – 60 mins.

 

College-wise/Course-wise cutoffs

The qualifying cut-off for NEET last year was 145 marks, and it is expected to be in a similar range this year. However, it is important to note that clearing the qualifying cut-off does not guarantee you a seat. The below table gives a marks range for different types of colleges and courses. To secure admission in a prestigious college, a minimum score of 600 is required.

 

Cutoffs
College Type	Low Score	High Score
Local private colleges	300	500
Dental colleges and other state Medical colleges	500	600
Top state colleges – MBBS	600	650
Top national colleges – MBBS (except AIIMS)	650	720

 

JEE versus NEET

With the number of hours equal to 3 for both the exams, JEE has a total of 90 questions and NEET has a total of 180 questions to be attempted. This gives every student a 2 minute window for solving problems in JEE whereas only a 1 minute window to solve in NEET (ignoring the time to fill OMR sheets which will be higher for NEET exam due to the higher number of questions a student has to mark leaving a window of even less than a minute in NEET!)

 

This brings us to a conclusion that NEET is a test of speed. This exam tests how well you remember the concepts and how fast can you apply those in the exams.

JEE has a more problem solving aspect to it where a student has to think critically about a concept more thoroughly and follow a more calculative approach to solve the problem. In JEE, it is important to learn how to select the problems you wish to attempt.  

Overall, the percentage score of students in JEE is less than that in NEET. However, the number of seats available in JEE are more. Students appearing for both exams should consider all these factors while creating different strategies for both the papers.