The paper leak controversy surrounding NEET-UG, India’s most prestigious medical entrance exam, has pushed policymakers to consider major reforms. Until now, NEET was conducted offline across the country on a single day, with lakhs of students simultaneously marking OMR sheets using ball point pens at exam centers nationwide.
However, conducting such a massive exam on a single day repeatedly exposed challenges including paper leaks and security lapses. To fix these gaps and restore students’ trust in the examination process, an expert committee has recommended abandoning the old system in favor of new technology.
Under the proposed changes, NEET would shift entirely from offline to a Computer-Based Test (CBT) format. Students would view questions on computer screens at exam centers and select their answers digitally, rather than using paper answer sheets.
Instead of holding the exam on a single day, it would be spread across 5 to 6 days in multiple shifts. Given the large number of candidates, splitting them across different days would ease pressure on exam centers and make monitoring easier. Each shift would use a different question paper, though care would be taken to ensure uniform difficulty levels across all papers. Should any shift’s paper turn out tougher, a “marks normalization” process would be applied to prevent disadvantaging those students.
Experts believe this computer-based digital system would significantly reduce the risk of paper leaks. If the government approves these proposals, students would need to start taking online mock tests from 2027 onward to get accustomed to the computer interface before appearing for the actual exam.