NEET PG 2025 raw scores won’t be disclosed or used for ranking: NBEMS explains normalisation method

NEW DELHI: The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has explained the controversial NEET PG normalisation method for this year’s exam. The raw score obtained by the candidates will neither be “reported or disclosed” nor will it be used for ranking or qualifying purposes, the NBE said.

Despite several requests made by the aspirants and doctor groups, the NBEMS announced its decision to conduct the NEET PG exam 2025 in two shifts.

The reason for opposing the decision was the alleged lack of transparency in the exam. With multiple candidates scoring the same NEET PG percentile in last year’s exam, aspirants have also expressed apprehension that varying difficulty levels across shifts could impact their rankings and admission chances.

NBEMS explains NEET PG normalisation method

NEET PG exam 2025 for admission to MD, MS, PG Diploma courses will be a computer-based test (CBT) on June 15. The exam will be held in two shifts - morning sitting from 9 am to 12.30 pm and afternoon sitting from 3.30 pm to 7 pm.

Candidates will not get an option to choose their shift. The allotment of the shifts will be done by NBE randomly.

The raw scores obtained by the students will be converted into percentile scores, which indicate “how many candidates have scored equal to or less than a candidate”.

“For the purpose of generating State Specific merit position, the normalized marks shall be used and incentive marks, if any to be granted by States, shall be added on to the normalized marks,” it said.

The NBEMS will use the following method to normalise NEET PG raw score.

NEET PG normalisation method 2025. (Image source: natboard.edu.in)

Also read #FairNEETPG: Doctor groups again demand from NBEMS single shift or ‘proper explanation’

NEET PG 2025: Why are doctors opposing two shifts?

Normalisation method is used to reduce redundancy and to improve data integrity. However, last year’s result analysis showed as many as 2,185 candidates with score above 99 percentile, raising suspicion among candidates. Careers360 did a detailed analysis of NEET PG results, take a look.

The NBEMS is also responsible for preparing the state merit list, which will be used by the state medical counselling committees for allotting seats to 50% of the state quota seats.

A group of doctors had alleged that those who scored less than them were placed higher in the state merit list. Several students filed petitions in the high court and Supreme Court and registered RTI requests due to the lack of clarity. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan were some of the states where NEET PG counselling got delayed due to errors in the state merit list.

Without the NEET PG raw score, candidates could not predict or compare their performance which stoked suspicion in the fairness of state and All India Quota (AIQ) counselling.

Despite facing legal challenges and opposition from students, the NBEMS stated that raw scores will not be disclosed and will not be used for ranking or qualifying purposes for the NEET PG 2025 exam. Adhering to its longstanding policy, it maintained that it would not publish the answer key or question paper to prevent misuse of the exam content.

What did NBEMS tell HC about state merit list?

In what it called a “scientific method”, the NBEMS briefed the Rajasthan High Court in December last year about the normalisation rule used for preparing state merit list.

"An exercise was undertaken and on the basis of the percentage suggested by the State of Rajasthan, their raw marks (not percentile) were reckoned and incentivised marks were calculated and then again, shift-wise percentile was calculated on the basis of All India data and merit list after merging the result of Ist shift and IInd shift, the candidates of Rajasthan were picked and merit list was sent to the State Government," the NBEMS said.