Your Complete Guide to Understanding Score Requirements for Top Medical Colleges
If you're preparing for NEET, one question keeps you awake at night: what score do I actually need? The answer isn't straightforward because NEET cut-offs change every year based on the number of applicants, difficulty level, and available seats. Let me walk you through what's actually happened in recent years and what you should realistically aim for.
The NEET cut-off isn't a fixed number that the NTA announces before the exam. Instead, it's determined after the exam is conducted, considering percentile scores and the number of qualified candidates needed to fill available MBBS and BDS seats across India. This makes prediction challenging but not impossible if you understand the trends.
In 2020, the general category cut-off was set at 720-138 out of 720 marks. This was relatively lenient compared to what followed. The exam had around 16 lakh applicants competing for roughly 15,000 MBBS seats nationally. The cut-off percentage was around 50th percentile for general category candidates.
By 2021, things got tighter. The cut-off moved to around 720-147. Competition increased noticeably as more aspirants took NEET seriously. The 2021 and 2022 exams both showed a similar pattern