NEET SS 2026: exam date, pattern, groups, eligibility and cut-off

What is NEET SS?

NEET SS is the eligibility-cum-ranking exam prescribed under Section 61(2) of the NMC Act, 2019 as the single entrance exam for super-speciality courses. NBEMS conducts the exam and declares the result; it has no role in counselling or seat allotment, which the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) runs.

• Covers: every DM and MCh course in India, including private colleges and deemed universities, all DM/MCh courses at Armed Forces Medical Services institutions, and all DrNB super-speciality courses (except the direct six-year DrNB courses).
• Does not cover: AIIMS New Delhi and the other AIIMS, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry, NIMHANS Bengaluru and SCTIMST Thiruvananthapuram. These admit through the separate INI SS exam.
• Mandatory: no state or institution may hold its own DM/MCh entrance; qualifying NEET SS has been required since the 2017 admission session.

NEET SS 2026 exam date and schedule

NBEMS has announced tentative dates for NEET SS 2026 but, as of 4 October 2026, has not released the information bulletin or opened applications. The exact dates, fee and application window will be in that bulletin.

Last cycle the bulletin came out about seven weeks before the exam, and NEET SS 2025 itself moved from a tentative 7–8 November to 26–27 December 2025. Plan your revision for the earlier date and keep an eye on the NBEMS notices page.

NEET SS exam pattern

Time-bound sections have applied since NEET SS 2024. You cannot move to the next section until the current section’s 50 minutes are over, and you cannot go back to a section once its time ends. Questions marked for review are evaluated like any other answer.

If candidates tie on marks, NBEMS breaks the tie in this order:

1. Fewer negative (wrong) responses in the whole paper.
2. Fewer negative responses in Section A, then Section B, then Section C.
3. Higher aggregate percentage across all MBBS professional exams.
4. The older candidate.

NEET SS syllabus: where the questions come from

In 13 of the 15 groups, every question comes from the primary feeder broad speciality of the group, at the level of the postgraduate exit curriculum: both its general or basic component and all of its sub-speciality and system components. So the Surgical group paper is a General Surgery paper and the Medical group paper is a General Medicine paper, whichever DM or MCh you want.

The two exceptions are the Critical Care Medicine and Medical Oncology groups. Since NEET SS 2024 their papers are drawn from the super-speciality itself, following an NMC directive.

All 15 NEET SS groups and their courses

Each group has one common paper for all the super-speciality courses in it. You may sit every group your PG degree makes you eligible for (paying the fee for each), but after qualifying you can choose only the courses in that group that accept your own degree as a feeder.

Two details trip candidates up: DM Medical Oncology, DM Critical Care Medicine and DM Pulmonary Medicine are not in the Medical group, and MCh Head & Neck Surgery is in the ENT group, not the Surgical group.

NEET SS eligibility

• Degree: a recognised MD, MS or DNB (degree or provisional pass certificate) in an eligible feeder speciality, held by the cut-off date. For NEET SS 2026 the tentative cut-off is 31 January 2027; later results are rejected.
• Registration: permanent registration with the NMC or a State Medical Council, shown at the test centre on exam day. Foreign nationals, including OCI holders, can appear without NMC registration.
• More than one group: allowed, if your degree is an eligible feeder for each; you pay the fee per group and get a separate rank in each.
• Not eligible: FCPS (CPS Mumbai) on its own, and candidates who have already joined a DM, MCh or DrNB seat through NEET SS cannot take a DrNB seat for the duration of that course.
• Age and attempts: the NEET-SS 2025 bulletin sets no upper age limit and no limit on attempts.

Qualifying percentile and NEET SS cut-off scores

You qualify if you are at or above the 50th percentile in your own question-paper group. There is one threshold for everyone: there are no separate percentiles for General, EWS, OBC, SC, ST or PwBD candidates, and MCC states there is currently no reservation in super-speciality seats (the exception is Tamil Nadu’s 50% in-service quota, which the state counsels itself).

For comparison, the NEET SS 2024 cut-offs at the 50th percentile were 299 for the Medical group and 285 for the Surgical group.

NEET SS counselling and seat allotment

• Who: the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) of DGHS runs one common online counselling for all DM, MCh and DrNB super-speciality seats, 100% All India Quota (except Tamil Nadu in-service seats).
• Rounds: the rule is two rounds, Round 1 and an upgradation Round 2. In recent cycles additional stray and special stray rounds have also been held.
• Fees: a non-refundable registration fee of ₹5,000 and a refundable security deposit of ₹2,00,000, forfeited if you do not join an allotted seat.
• Seat matrix: the final matrix is published only on the MCC website; tentative DM/MCh seats appear on the NMC website and DrNB seats on the NBEMS website.

NEET SS 2025 counselling ran long: Round 1 results came on 18 March 2026, Round 2 was held up by litigation over Tamil Nadu in-service seats until its result on 13 August 2026, and a special stray vacancy round opened on 25 September 2026.

NEET SS result and scorecard

• Scores are out of 600, with a group-specific rank; if you sat several groups you get a rank in each.
• Scorecards are downloadable only from the NBEMS website, for six months (they are not emailed or posted).
• The result is valid only for that admission session and cannot be carried forward.
• Candidates can challenge questions for technical errors within two days of the exam; there is no re-evaluation.

How to prepare for NEET SS

Because the Medical and Surgical group papers test your whole PG speciality, NEET SS rewards breadth revised fast, not depth in one subspecialty. A plan that works for most candidates:

1. Map the syllabus to past papers first. Go through previous-year questions for your group before re-reading textbooks, so you know which systems and topics carry the questions. See our PYQ banks.
2. Revise system by system with topic-wise tests. Finish a system, then take a timed sectional on it the same week to find gaps while they are fresh.
3. Train for three 50-minute blocks. Sections are time-bound, so practise at one question a minute and do not plan to come back later; a section you leave is closed.
4. Treat negatives as a tie-breaker, not just −1. Fewer wrong answers is the first tie-breaker. Attempt when you can rule out at least one option (+4 against −1 still pays on average), and skip true guesses late in a section.
5. Take full-length mocks in the last six to eight weeks. Sit them at the real exam time, review every wrong and guessed answer, and write the takeaways into one revision notebook.

Group-specific plans are in the NEET SS Surgery and NEET SS Medicine guides.

NEET SS mock tests on Duramater

Our NEET SS series are written by doctors who recently ranked in the exam: topic-wise tests through the syllabus and full-length grand tests on the exact 150-question, three-section, +4 / −1 pattern, each with an explained answer key.

• NEET SS · Medicine

  NEET SS Medicine Mock Test Series

  24 tests · 1,500 questions · 1 free

  Typical mock: 150 questions in 150 min, +4 / −1

  Next test 27 Oct 2026Details
• NEET SS · Surgery

  NEET SS Surgery Mock Test Series

  25 tests · 900 questions · 1 free

  Typical mock: 50 questions in 50 min, +4 / −1

  Details

Upcoming NEET SS test dates