New Delhi. : The National Medical Commission on Wednesday issued the proposed draft regulations related to the National Exit Test (NExT). As per the draft regulation, the objective of these regulations is to bring uniformity in the summative evaluation across the country with reference to the minimum common standards of education and training of a medical graduate.
The NExT will comprise two separate exams called ‘Steps’.
NExT Step 1
The NExT step 1 will be a theoretical exam. The questions will be one or more than one type of MCQ. The exam will be conducted in CBT/online mode. The centralised common exam will be conducted by a body formed by the commission for this purpose.
There will be six parts of the paper covering subjects of III MBBS/Final MBBS:
- — Medicine and allied disciplines
- — Surgery and allied disciplines
- — Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- — Paediatrics
- — Otorhinolaryngology
- — Ophthalmology
— Applied aspects of all subjects covered under I and II MBBS
— Applied aspects of all subjects covered under III or Final MBBS (Part 1)
All the students who have completed III or final MBBS course from a Commission-recognised medical college would be eligible to appear in the exam. The NExT step 1 exam will be held once a year prior to the university practical exam for III MBBS (Part 2)/final MBBS preceding compulsory rotating internship. A supplementary exam will be conducted once a year for the candidates who failed one or more papers. Students who won’t be able to clear that exam either can appear for the ‘step 1 regular exam in the following year. There is no restriction in the number of attempts provided that the candidate passes both the steps within 10 years of joining MBBS.
In Step 1, the exam for medicine, surgery and Obstetrics and Gynaecology will be for three hours each and Paediatrics, Otorhinolaryngology and Ophthalmology will be for 1.5 hours each.
NExT Step 2
NExT step 2 will be a practical/clinical and viva voce exam covering seven disciplines:
- — Medicine and allied disciplines
- — Surgery and allied disciplines
- — Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- — Paediatrics
- — Otorhinolaryngology
- — Ophthalmology
- — Orthopaedics and PMR (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation)
The exam will be held in person and shall be conducted by the respective state health universities. Where state Health Universities do not exist, the Commission shall decide on the university. The exam will be conducted once a year. A supplementary exam will be held once a year but it is restricted to students failing up to three subjects.
The minimum marks for passing shall be 50 per cent of the total marks in each subject in Step 1. The criteria to pass Step 2 shall be satisfactory demonstration of competencies that are evaluated.
NExT Exam Schedule
As per the draft regulations– the exam schedule will look somewhat like this:
- — NExT Step 1 regular exam will be conducted in the second week of December and will conclude in the second week of January.
- — NExT Step 1 supplementary exam: No dates announced yet
- — III MBBS/Final MBBS Part 2 practical exam will be conducted in the first week of January and results will be announced in the fourth week of January.
- — The internship period will be from February 1 to February 28 of the following year.
— NExT Step 2 regular exam will be held in the second week of March till the first week of April.
— The dates for the supplementary exam for NExT Step 2 are not announced yet.
— Post Graduate admission will take place between May to June and results will be announced on June 30. The courses will begin on July 1.
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