With every passing year, the NEET PG exam seems less like a gateway to specialization and more like a psychological marathon. The competition is intense, the number of seats remains limited, and uncertainty around exam dates or formats only adds to the stress.
Many aspirants prepare for 12 to 18 months—some even longer—often isolating themselves from family, social life, and even regular health routines. Yet despite the effort, the margin for error is razor-thin. One mistake in a 200-question paper, and it feels like the entire year was lost.
What’s worse is that the exam is increasingly being reduced to a game of speed and recall. It’s less about clinical judgment or patient care, and more about ticking the correct MCQ in under 30 seconds. For those who actually want to become better doctors—not just better test-takers—this can feel disheartening.
Then there’s the mental toll:
- Anxiety about results
- Self-doubt during preparation
- Pressure from peers, mentors, or family
- The guilt of taking a break or needing help
The system, ideally meant to filter competent postgraduates, now often ends up filtering out mentally exhausted, financially strained, and emotionally burnt-out individuals.
At the same time, one can’t ignore that standardized exams are needed in a country this vast. But is NEET PG the best possible version of that system? Are there alternatives? Can the process be made more humane?
For those currently preparing:
- How are you managing your mental health during prep?
- Do you think the current format truly reflects medical aptitude?
- If you’ve taken NEET PG before, what would you advise someone just starting out?
We need to talk about this—not as victims of the system, but as future professionals who care about both science and sanity.