NEET Exam Pattern 2026: Duration & Questions, Mode (Offline), Total Marks

NEET Exam Pattern 2026 has been prescribed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on its official website, which is neet.nta.nic.in. Last year, the NEET exam pattern was changed to the pre-COVID format. The NEET exam pattern serves an important purpose in knowing about the exam’s marking scheme, subject-wise, the type of questions asked, the number of questions and all other relevant information. Students aspiring to pursue undergraduate medical and dental courses in India must check out this page to learn about the latest exam pattern of the NEET UG exam for effective preparation for the exam.

NEET exam pattern 2026 has been released along with the information bulletin on its official website. The exam pattern has been reversed to the pre-COVID era. Last year the optional questions were removed from the exam pattern. Instead of 200 questions, there will now be 180 questions. The total duration of NEET is 180 minutes.

According to the last year notice released, NTA has stated, “Aspirants are hereby informed that the question paper pattern and examination duration will revert to the pre-COVID format. where there will not be any Section B anymore. Hence, there will be a total of 180 compulsory questions (45 questions each in Physics and Chemistry and 90 in Biology) which will be attempted by the candidates in 180 minutes thereby removing any optional questions and extra time introduced due to COVID.”

The exam will have subjects that are Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology. Candidates who wish to appear in NEET 2026 exam to pursue MBBS, BDS, BAMS or any other medical course must be aware of the latest NEET exam pattern to boost their preparation.  NEET is the top medical exam in India that is held only once in a year. Know about NEET question type, marking scheme, duration of exam, medium of exam and more. 

⇒ NEET Application Form 2026

NEET Exam Pattern 2026 Overview

Here is an overview of the NEET exam pattern 2026. This gives you a brief of the subject wise number of questions, marking scheme, questions asked and more. 

NEET Marking Scheme 2026: Negative Marking Scheme 

One must go through the NEET syllabus to know the important topics for the exam. NEET aspirants should go through the NEET 2026 marking scheme to understand how they will be marked.  

• For every correct answer, you will be awarded 4 marks.
• For every incorrect answer marked by you, 1 mark will be deducted.
• No marks will be awarded or deducted for an unanswered question. 
• If it is found that a question has more than one option, it will be dealt in following manner:

  (i) If more than one option is found to be correct then Four marks (+4) will be awarded to only those who have marked any of the correct options.

  (ii) If all options are found to be correct, then Four marks (+4) will be awarded to all those who have attempted the question.

  (iii) If none of the options is found correct or a Question is found to be wrong or a Question is dropped then all candidates who have appeared will be given four marks (+4) irrespective of the fact whether the question has been attempted or not attempted by the candidate.

The table below summarises the marking scheme of NEET UG 2026.

Check important NEET Exam related pages: 

How to calculate the NEET 2026 score using NEET Exam Pattern?

Candidates can use the following formula to calculate their expected NEET 2026 score after the release of the NEET answer key 2026. As you that a correct answer will fetch you 4 marks while an incorrect answer will lead to a negative marking of 1. Hence the formula to calculate NEET exam marks is as follows: 

Language Options in NEET Exam Pattern 2026

NEET 2026 exam is held in 13 languages all over India. The medium of the Question Paper should be carefully chosen while filling in the Application Form. The option once chosen cannot be changed. Candidates opting for English would be provided a Test Booklet in English medium only. Candidates opting for Hindi would be provided with a Bilingual Test Booklet in English and Hindi. Candidates opting for Regional Languages would be provided a Test Booklet in English + selected Regional Language medium. (For Example: If a candidate opted Tamil (out of 13 languages), the Test Booklet would be provided in English + Tamil) The list of languages available in the NEET exam is as follows:

NEET Registrations of Previous Year: Language wise

In the NEET registration 2025 (last year) exam, candidates had registered in the medium of language as provided by the NTA. Check the following table to learn about the previous year’s language-wise NEET registration