National entrance test to replace OJEE for medical courses on May 13

BHUBANESWAR: Medical students preparing forOrissa Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) need to re-plan their schedule, as the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), tentatively scheduled for May 13, will replace OJEE for admission into undergraduate medical courses in the state in 2012.
"I can now confirm that there will be no entrance at the state level for undergraduate medical courses next time. Students will be drawn from the NEET merit list for all medical colleges," said Dr Sitaram Mahapatra, joint director of medical education and training. For other professional courses such as engineering, MBA and MCA, the OJEE will continue as it stands, he said.
Dr Mahapatra, who represented Orissa at a meeting to finalise NEET at New Delhi on September 23, said NEET will draw separate merit lists for each state from among the state domiciles, keeping in mind various reservations for 85% seats in medical colleges. For the rest 15% seats and Union government colleges, which are filled up from the all-India quota, an all-India merit list will be drawn.
OJEE authorities will conduct counseling for the 85% seats from among the state merit list, while a centralized counselling will be drawn for the 15% seats from the all-India merit list in New Delhi.
Dr Mahapatra, who is also the OJEE vice-chairman, said the Indian Medical Council and Central Board of Secondary Education will work on a percentile system to ensure that each state merit list comprises sufficient students from their respective domicile to fill up their seats. "It was our biggest concern because we thought enough students from our state may not qualify the all-India test," Dr Mahapatra said.
MCI will also work on a uniform syllabus and model question papers for the test. NEET will have 180 questions, comprising 45 each from physics, chemistry, botany and zoology. The test will be of 180 minutes duration with centres in all district headquarters, Dr Mahapatra said.
Applications, both online and offline, for NEET will tentatively start in the second week of December and will continue till second week of January. Students would receive their admit cards by second week of April. After the test on May 13, results will be published in June 2012, the OJEE vice-chairman said.
Dr Mahapatra said the state government has requested the Central government to make it mandatory for students of other states, who will take admission for the 15% seats, to give an undertaking that they will serve in rural areas of the state for two years. There is already such a system for students of state domicile.