NEW DELHI: A high cut-off mark this year has made competition intense for the students seeking medical seats, according to educationists and experts. Those who have scored above 550 marks are likely to get into a government medical college, they stated.

Recently, the National Medical Commission (NMC) announced a significant increase in the number of MBBS seats for the current academic year. The 823 medical colleges in the country will now totally offer 1,36,939 MBBS seats. While a total of 11,21,185 candidates have qualified in the re-NEET for admission to MBBS and other allied medical courses this year, it is a huge dip from 12,36,531 in 2025 and 13,15,853 in 2024.

However, the number of students who took up the medical entrance exam too has dipped significantly, by as much as two to three lakh compared to the previous year. While the cut-off for the general category has gone up from 686 to 144 in 2025 to 715 – 213 in 2026, the cut-off for the OBCs, ST, and ST has shot up from 143 to 113 last year to 212 to 177 marks this year.

Analysing the results, Kamal Khatri, centre head at the Lajpat Nagar branch of Allen Career Institute, told this newspaper that in the previous NEET exams, quite a few students scored 720 out of 720 marks. “This year the highest score is only 715 and only two students have secured it.”

Harpreet Singh, who has 25-plus years of teaching Physics for competitive exams and Director of Visionary Masterz said, “The minimum marks to qualify for the NEET-UG exam have drastically gone up this year. Qualifying in the NEET is crucial for those who want to enter private colleges or study abroad.”