NEET, JEE to be held twice a year

New Delhi, July 7: The Union Education Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that the national level engineering and medical entrance examinations - JEE Main and NEET - will be held twice a year from 2019 in online mode.

The minister announced this in a press conference in New Delhi today.

According to the minister, Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and National Eligibility cum Entrance Examination (NEET) will be held by the newly formed examination conducting agency, National Testing Agency (NTA).

Apart from NEET and JEE Main, NTA will also conduct National Eligibility Test (NET), Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT) exams from now on.

Media reported that, National Eligibility Test (NET) would be conducted in December and this would be the first exam to be conducted by the newly formed body.

These competitive exams will be held on multiple dates, the minister added.

JEE Main exams will be held in January and April while NEET will be held twice in February and May.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is currently the nodal agency responsible for organising JEE Main and NEET examinations.

According to the minister, the candidates who will be appearing for these tests will be allowed to use the best score from the examinations in counselling process.

The minister also said that syllabus, question formats, language and fees for the exams would not be changed.

"The exams will be more secure and at par with international norms. There will be no issues of leakage and it would be more student friendly, open, scientific and a leak-proof system," Mr. Javadekar told reporters.

"The NTA would benefit the students and they would have the option of going to computer centers from August-end to practice for the exams. The tests would be computer-based," he added.

The exams would be held over a span of four-five days and students would have the option of choosing the dates, he said.

The timetable of the exams to be conducted by NTA would be uploaded on the ministry's website. However, the IITs would continue to conduct Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced exam.