NEET Exam 2017: Check out how many attempts aspirants can make and new age limit

Aspirants can now appear for The National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance-Test (NEET) for only three times, as new criteria for NEET exam has been introduced. Also, aspirants age limit has been set in order to appear for the examination. The minimum age to appear for NEET is 17 years, the maximum age for open category students is 25 years and 30 years for the reserved category.On the other hand, the Age limit for the reserved category has been set to 30 years and ST, SC can also appear for the exam for only three times.

This has been introduced in the examination criteria to bring down the number of older candidates competing with young aspirants.

The decision was taken at a University Grants Commission (UGC) meeting on Tuesday in Delhi.

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To date, there has never been a maximum age defined to take NEET, nor has there been a limit on the number of attempts. "This is a good decision," said Dr Pravin Shingare, director at the Maharashtra directorate of medical education and research (DMER).

"There are some students who keep taking the test, and when they don't make the cut, join a BSc college and keep taking the medical entrance test," he added. In fact, the rule would also bar the faculty of coaching classes who keep on attempting the test to understand its altering pattern.

The NEET information brochures contain this information and will be distributed soon. "We often find that coaching classes field candidates and sometimes that leads to fraud and cheating," said an expert.