2019 MBBS class will be first to use medical licentiate NExT pattern

Students enrolled in the MBBS program in 2019 will be the first to take the National Exit Exam (NExT), for which a practice exam will be held on July 28.

According to the information given by the National Medical Commission (NMC) on June 27 at a webinar hosted for medical college professors and final-year MBBS students across the country, registration for the mock exam commenced on June 28.

NExT will now be the medical licentiate exam, replacing both the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE) and the National Eligibility Cumulative Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET-PG) in a two-step exam. The first step of NExT will be a computer-based examination with multiple choice questions (MCQs), followed by a practical or clinical test. Steps 1 and 2 will take place twice a year.

Next Step-1 will be held at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi in May and November. After completing their internship, students will be able to sit for Step 2, which will be held in June and December.

Steps of NexT Exam

The NMC revealed full information on Tuesday on the schedule, structure, and modes of NExT exams, which will be held for the first time in 2024.

Step 1 will have six topic papers, and applied components of the other MBBS subjects, such as forensic medicine, toxicology, and community medicine, will be integrated into the relevant clinical subjects. 10% of the items in each paper will be connected to applied elements of related subjects.

Step 2 will be a rigorous practical or clinical test, which will be administered following the end of the internship and will assess abilities in clinical diagnosis, patient assessment, and clinical decision-making, as well as practical and communication skills required for medical practice. During this stage, seven subjects will be reviewed. Medicine, surgery, pediatrics, ophthalmology, and orthopedics are among them.

"The time schedule and modalities of NExT Step 2 shall be decided by the NMC and the respective authorized universities or institutions after completion of internship and prior to the admission process for the postgraduate medical courses of that year," the NMC stated.

Meanwhile, the NMC has stated that only final-year MBBS students are eligible for mock or practice exams, which are designed to familiarise potential candidates with the computer-based test, software interface, and process flow in the examination center. In response to the Commission's most recent update, students and doctor's associations have stated that more time should have been allocated to individuals taking this exam for the first time. "India does not need to go the way medical exams are done in Western countries, and more time should have been given to those taking the test for the first time, at least a year to prepare.

Gaurav Tyagi, a medical education counselor, and NEET specialist, believes that by taking the mock test, students will get a taste of the exam and comprehend its level of difficulty and the types of questions that will be asked. Furthermore, he ensures that there is no doubt regarding any issue because the commission has explicitly provided all of the data.