The National Eligibility-cum-Entry Test-Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024 examination will be held in the first week of July, followed by counselling in the first week of August. They also declared that this year’s National Exit Test (NExT) will not take place.

According to the recently notified “Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023,” which have replaced the Post-graduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2018, the existing NEET-PG examination will continue until the proposed NExT becomes functional for PG admission.

The NEET-PG is an eligibility-cum-ranking test mandated by the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 as the single entrance examination for admission to many MD/MS and PG Diploma Courses.

In India, the National Exit Test (NExT), which was designed to simplify medical licensing and admissions, is now on hold. As a two-part exam assessing both theoretical knowledge and practical abilities, NExT was designed to replace both NEET-PG for post-graduate study and FMGE for foreign medical graduates pursuing practice.

Despite promising benefits such as standardizing exams and enhancing practical skills, its implementation has been delayed, leaving NEET-PG as India’s only entrance to post-graduate medical study.