NEET cut off is the minimum qualifying marks that a student needs to obtain to get admission to the top medical or dental colleges in India. From 2019 onwards, the responsibility of conducting the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) is given to NTA (National Testing Agency). The NTA will declare the NEET cut off along with its results in the month of June. For the year 2020, the NEET cut off results were expected to come out by 4 June 2020. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, it may get delayed as the exam date has been postponed to 13th September 2020. The students who are appearing for the NEET examination can avail an MBBS/BDS seat under the following quotas –
- All India Quota
- State Government Quota
- Seats reserved in Central Universities/Institutions/Deemed Universities
- NRI/Management/State Quota in Private University or Private Colleges
- Seats reserved under Central Pool Quota
Besides this, the NTA also considers the category-wise reservation while declaring the NEET cut off. The students belonging to different categories can obtain reservation as per the following conditions –
- For students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), the NTA reserves 15% of the total seats.
- For students belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST), the NTA reserves 7.5% of the total seats.
- For students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), the NTA reserves 27% of the total seats in Central Education Institutions.
- For Persons with Disabilities (PwD), the NTA reserves 5% of the total seats.
This article provides you with in-depth knowledge about NEET cut off such as important details, qualifying criteria, examination pattern, score card, tie-breaker conditions and more.
NEET Cut Off – Qualifying Criteria
The NTA adopts the percentile approach to declare the NEET cut off and the merit list as specified by the MCI (Medical Council of India) and DCI (Dental Council of India). A percentile rank can be defined as the score percentage which falls below a given score within a group. If you want to get admission to an MBBS or BDS degree programme, you need to obtain a minimum percentile rank in the NEET examination. The minimum qualifying criteria may vary for different categories as well. The table below highlights detailed information about the qualifying criteria for NEET.
Qualifying Criteria for NEET Cut Off
| S.No. | Category | Qualifying Criteria |
| 1. | Unreserved Category (UR) | 50th Percentile |
| 2. | Scheduled Caste (SC) | 40th Percentile |
| 3. | Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 40th Percentile |
| 4. | Other Backward Classes (OBC) | 40th Percentile |
| 5. | Physically handicapped (PH) + UR | 45th Percentile |
| 6. | PH + SC | 40th Percentile |
| 7. | PH + ST | 40th Percentile |
| 8. | PH + OBC | 40th Percentile |
NEET Cut Off – Tie Breaking
What happens in a situation where two or more students get the same marks? How are such candidates evaluated in the NEET cut off ? This is a common question that strikes in the mind of most of the students. Under such conditions, the NTA prepares an inter-se merit to break the tie. It considers the following conditions to prepare the inter-se merit in the order specified –
- The students obtaining higher marks in the Biology subject, followed by,
- The students obtaining higher marks in the Chemistry subject, followed by,
- The students who have attempted a lesser number of incorrect answers in all the subjects, followed by,
- The students with older age.
NEET Cut Off – Examination Pattern
While you are aware of qualifying criteria that you need to fulfil to get admission to the top MBBS or BDS college, you must also have complete information about the examination pattern. What are the subjects that require your focus? How many questions does a student have to attempt in the NEET examination? Is there any negative marking in the examination? How many marks are allocated to each question? What is the medium of the question paper? What is the duration of the exam? The answers to all these questions are covered in the table below.
Detailed NEET Examination Pattern
| S.No. | Particulars | Details |
| 1. | Medium of the Question Paper | English, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada |
| 2. | Exam duration | 3 Hours |
| 3. | Subjects covered | Physics, Chemistry, Biology |
| 4. | Examination Type | Objective-type questions |
| 5. | Total number of questions | 180 |
| 6. | Subject-wise number of questions | Physics – 45, Chemistry – 45, Biology – 90 |
| 7. | Marks allocated to each correct answer | 4 marks |
| 8. | Negative marking for each incorrect answer | 1 mark |
Also Read: NEET SYLLABUS – WHAT YOU MUST PREPARE?
NEET Cut Off – Score Card
The students can download the NEET score card online after the declaration of NEET result to process further with the counselling procedures. The students can access their score card through the official website of NTA NEET with the help of their roll number and date of birth. It contains the following essential information of the student related to the examination –
- Name of the applicant
- His/her parent’s name
- Date of birth
- Category
- Gender
- Nationality
- Application number
- Roll number
- Scores obtained by the applicant
- Percentile score
- Description of section-wise marks
- Qualifying status
- All India Rank and State Quota Rank
Also Read: NEET RESULT – IMPORTANT DATES, CUT-OFF, MERIT LIST AND SCORE CARD
NEET Cut Off – Previous Year’s Statistics
While the NEET Cut Off for 2020 is expected to come out by June 2020, here is a brief overview of NEET Cut Off 2019 for your reference. Considering this, you can get an estimate of how much you necessarily need to score in the examination to get admission in the renowned medical/dental colleges or universities. These statistics include the detailed qualifying marks range for each category and gender-wise details of qualifying candidates in the year 2019.
NEET Cut Off 2019 – Qualifying Marks Range
| S.No. | Category | Qualifying Criteria | Marks Range* |
| 1. | Unreserved Category (UR) | 50th Percentile | 704-134 |
| 2. | Scheduled Caste (SC) | 40th Percentile | 133-107 |
| 3. | Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 40th Percentile | 133-107 |
| 4. | Other Backward Classes (OBC) | 40th Percentile | 133-107 |
| 5. | Physically handicapped (PH) + UR | 45th Percentile | 133-120 |
| 6. | PH + SC | 40th Percentile | 119-107 |
| 7. | PH + ST | 40th Percentile | 119-107 |
| 8. | PH + OBC | 40th Percentile | 119-107 |
*The marks range is applicable for NEET 2019. It may vary every year.
NEET Cut Off 2019 – Category-Wise Number of Candidates Qualified
| S.No. | Category | Number of Candidates Qualified |
| 1. | Unreserved Category (UR) | 7,04,335 |
| 2. | Scheduled Caste (SC) | 20,009 |
| 3. | Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 8,455 |
| 4. | Other Backward Classes (OBC) | 63,789 |
| 5. | Physically handicapped (PH) + UR | 266 |
| 6. | PH + SC | 32 |
| 7. | PH + ST | 14 |
| 8. | PH + OBC | 142 |
Gender-Wise Detail of Qualified Candidates as per NEET Cut Off 2019
| S.No. | Gender | No. of students registered | No. of students appeared | No. of students qualified through NEET Cut Off |
| 1. | Male | 6,80,414 | 6,30,283 | 3,51,278 |
| 2. | Female | 8,38,955 | 7,80,467 | 4,45,761 |
| 3. | Transgender | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| 4. | Total | 15,19,375 | 14,10,755 | 7,97,042 |
Note: These statistics are applicable to the year 2019. These numbers may change every year.
Also Read: NEET COUNSELLING – KEY DATES, QUALIFYING CRITERIA, PROCEDURE AND SEAT ALLOTMENT
NEET Cut Off – FAQ
Q. What is the significance of qualifying percentile in the NEET cut off?
The qualifying percentile signifies the minimum percentile rank that a student should obtain to be eligible for the admission process.
Q. If a student secures the NEET cut off, will he/she be getting assured admission in the medical or dental college?
Securing the cut off percentile does not guarantee admission in the medical or dental college. The students only become eligible for the admission process.
Q. What process has to be followed after the declaration of NEET cut off?
Once the NEET cut off is declared, the students qualifying the examination, become eligible for the counselling schedule to obtain admission in a medical/dental college of their choice.
Q. Can a student use his/her NEET 2019 scores in NEET 2020 examination?
No.
Also Read: NEET EXAM DATE – ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
