NEET 2027 CBT: what is announced, what is still unconfirmed
A CBT announcement is not an exam instruction sheet. Learn the navigation and practise the clock. Do not build your preparation around rules that have not been settled.
Announced, and still unconfirmed
Dharmendra Pradhan announced a move to computer based NEET from 2027 in May 2026. That announcement does not establish the final syllabus, question count, interface, number of shifts or scoring method.
Sources: Indian Express, 15 May 2026, reporting the announcement; Times of India, 6 August 2026, reporting that the Centre told the Supreme Court no final decision had been taken. The latter is a news report; we have not independently inspected the affidavit.
Checked 8 September 2026. The NTA Information Bulletin for NEET (UG) 2027 has not been published yet. November 2026–January 2027 is our editorial estimate for its release, not an NTA schedule. The figures below belong to the 2026 bulletin. We will update them against the 2027 bulletin when it is available.
The verified 2026 pattern
These figures are from the NTA Information Bulletin for NEET (UG) 2026, chapter 4, sections 2, 3 and 5, printed pages 21–22. They describe the original 2026 examination scheme, not a confirmed 2027 CBT pattern.
| Questions | 180, all compulsory |
|---|---|
| Duration | 180 minutes — exactly one minute per question |
| Subjects | Physics 45, Chemistry 45, Biology 90 (Botany + Zoology) |
| Correct answer | +4 |
| Incorrect answer | −1 |
| Unanswered | 0 |
| Maximum marks | 720 |
Source: NTA Information Bulletin NEET (UG) 2026, chapter 4 (printed pages 21–22; PDF pages 26–27). Section 4 specifies pen-and-paper mode for 2026. This bulletin does not confirm a 2027 interface or normalisation formula.
The minute-per-question rate is the number worth internalising. It is not a target for every question — you will spend twenty seconds on some and four minutes on others — but it is the budget for this 180-minute practice format. Check the final exam instructions for your sitting.
Work through the published rules with our NEET exam pattern and marking calculator.
What to practise in an NTA-style CBT interface
If you have only sat NEET on paper, the change is bigger than "the questions are on a screen". Our mock uses an NTA-style layout. The walkthrough below describes this practice interface; the final 2027 instructions will settle which controls and rules appear in the actual exam.
The question palette
A grid down the right-hand side, one cell per question, colour-coded into five states: not visited, not answered, answered, marked for review, and answered and marked for review. That last one matters more than it sounds — an answered-and-marked question is counted for evaluation in this mock. Check that rule again in your exam instructions.
The four buttons
Every question is left with one of: Save & Next, Save & Mark for Review, Clear Response, or Mark for Review & Next. Two of them save your answer and two of them do not, and the difference is not obvious under time pressure.
Section tabs and the fixed deadline
Subjects sit behind tabs at the top and you can move between them freely. The countdown is tied to a fixed end time in our mock; reopening the tab does not reset it. When it reaches zero the paper submits itself.
If there are multiple shifts: what normalisation could mean
CBT does not, by itself, mean multiple shifts. The number of shifts and any normalisation method for NEET 2027 remain unconfirmed.
If candidates sit different papers, the exam authority may use a statistical method to make scores comparable. A percentile-based method is one possibility, not an announced NEET 2027 rule. There is no verified formula here that turns a raw score of 600 into a particular adjusted score.
For now, track accuracy, unanswered questions and time spent in your mocks. Do not convert those marks into a predicted normalised score.
How to prepare for the format, specifically
Keep studying the published syllabus. Add these specific practice habits:
- Sit at least a few full-length papers on a computer, in one 180-minute block, without pausing. The fatigue of three hours of screen reading is real and it is not simulated by a one-hour test.
- Learn the palette until you read it by colour, not by hovering. It is the only map you have of where your marks are.
- Decide your marking-for-review policy before the exam, not at minute 140.
- Practise the last ten minutes deliberately: what you do with unanswered questions when −1 is on the table is a strategy, and it should not be improvised.
Sit a free full-length CBT paper
180 questions, 180 minutes, on an NTA-style practice interface. Every question read against the page it was printed on.