The exam was held on May 3 in a OMR sheetNTA NEET UG 2026 Re-Exam Answer Key Highlights: The National Testing Agency (NTA) will likely issue the provisional answer key for the NEET UG exam, 2026, this week. Candidates who have appeared for the exam will be able to check the answer key at the official site: neet.nta.nic.in. Students will be required to log in to the site using the login credentials, such as application number and password, to check the answer key. The NTA has also opened the objection window for students who want to challenge the answer.
Read | NEET UG 2026 Cut Off: Difficulty level, category-wise expected cut offs
After the provisional answer key is released, students can challenge the answer by paying a certain amount of fee in case they think that the answer mentioned is wrong. The provisional answer key is released a few days after the exam is conducted.
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To challenge the NEET answer key, visit neet.nta.nic.in and log in using your application number and password. Click on “Challenge Answer Key,” then select the questions you want to dispute and choose what you believe is the correct option. Upload supporting documents in PDF format to back your claim, save the challenge, and pay the required fee to complete the process.
NEET UG is the only entrance exam that is conducted across the country for students who wish to pursue medical studies.
The provisional answer key of the NEET UG re-exam will be releasing at their official website, neet.nta.nic.in. Candidate can check the provisional answer key as well as their response sheet using their login details.
This is the first time in history that the NEET UG exam was cancelled due to the alleged paper leak of the initial exam, which was conducted on May 3, 2026. More than 22.79 lakh candidates had appeared in the re-exam across 551 cities in India and 14 abroad.
The space for rough work in the NEET UG retest question booklet was increased from two pages to four pages. To give convenience to left-handed candidates, the layout was also changed: two page for rough work was placed at the beginning after the instruction page while the rest two page was placed at the end.
Medical Aspirants who have appeared for the re-exam are advised to keep both their original and photocopy documents ready in advance for the process of counselling and admission. This process will take place after the result declaration. Some states also might require a domcilie certificate of the candidate in the process.
The experts predict that the All India Quota (AIQ) general category cutoff for the government colleges to be around 590-600 marks for the NEET UG exam.
To check the provisional answer key candidates have to log in to the official website, neet.nta.nic.in using their application number, password, and security pin.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continues its investigation regarding the alleged paper leak of the initial NEET exam, which was conducted on May 3, 2026. The investigation was started after the government referred the matter to CBI following the exam cancellation.
The NEET UG 2026 re-exam result will consist of the candidate's marks, All India Rank, category, category-wise qualifying cut off percentile for General, OBC, SC, ST and EWS candidates. Students will need the marksheet during the counselling and admission process.
The cybercrime branch of the Ahmedabad city police arrested two men from Rajasthan for allegedly running a racket that defrauded medical aspirants and their parents via Telegram by allegedly claiming to have the NEET UG re-exam question paper and offering to sell it to them.
NEET UG candidates should note that the qualifying cut-off marks only makes them eligible to participate in the counselling process. The admission cut-off is higher and depends on the state, colleges and categories.
Along with the provisional answer key, the objection window is also opened for candidates who are willing to raise objections. Challenges which are submitted by the students are reviewed by the subject experts after which the final answer key is prepared.
The NEET UG re-exam question paper was available in 13 different language- English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu mediums. Candidates had to answer the question in the medium which they have chosen while filling up the application form.
Along with the provisional answer key, the response sheet of the candidates who have appeared for the examination is also expected to be declared by this week.
NTA has acknowledged the contribution of experts from different institutions in India who had helped to prepare sets of question papers within a short timeline. It also said that nearly seven lakh personnel, which includes of police teams, observers, invigilators, and exam staff were mobilised across the country to hold the exam. The entri thing was completed within 37 days.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is expected to release the provisional answer key as well as the candidate's response sheet this week. The answer key will be released at their official website, neet.nta.nic.in.
In a social media post, NTA has thanked the governing bodies which have supported the NEET reexam. The authority also said that this wasn’t the effort of a single institution. It was a collective national endeavour—bringing together governments, agencies, institutions and frontline personnel across the country — so that every candidate could focus on one thing alone: the examination before them.
To raise objection, follow the steps mentioned below
Step 1: Go to the official website, at neet.nta.nic.in.
Step 2: Click on "Challenge answer key at the homepage.
Step 3: Log in using your application number, password and security code.
Step 4: Select the question which you wish to challenge.
Step 5: Select the correct answer and upload documents to support your claims.
Step 6: Pay the required fees and submit.
Step 7: Download and save the fees receipt.
The Re NEET final answer key will be released after all the objections in the challenge window are reviewed. Any changes made in the challenge window will be included in the final answer key.
To check the provisional answer key follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Go to official website at neet.nta.nic.in.
Step 2: Click on "NEET UG 2026 Provisional Answer Key” link.
Step 3: Log in using the required details.
Step 4: Download the provisional answer key and the response sheet.
Step 5: Match your response with the answer key to calculate the appoximate score.
The NEET UG re-exam was conducted in 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The city intimation slip for the NEET UG retest was released on June 7, 2026. The city intimation slip consists of the city where the exam centre was alloted to the candidate.
Last year, the results for NEET UG exam was declared on June 14, 2025. The exam was conducted on May 4, 2025.
After the provisional answer key of the retest is released by the NTA, the objection window will also be opened. Candidates can raise objection against the provisional answer key by paying a fee of Rs 200 per question.
Category wise cut-off in 2025:
-- General Category (UR/EWS): 686-144
-- OBC PwD, SC PwD and ST PwD category: 126-113
-- OBC, SC, ST category: 143-113.
The NEET UG re-exam provisional answer key will be released on neet.nta.nic.in by the authority.
In 2025, 22,76,069 candidates had registered themselves for the NEET UG exam, out of which 22,09,318 students had appeared for the exam. From these 12,36,531 had qualified for admission to UG programmes in medical and allied courses.
The security and special arrangments included Aadhaar-based biometric and face authentication, CCTV surveillance, signal jammers and two-layer frisking at centres. Command and control centres for CCTV monitoring were set up at the NTA, the Ministry of Education, 34 Centrally Funded Institutions, state headquarters and district collectorates
After the initial NEET UG exam was cancelled, a re-exam was conducted in which more than 20 lakh students had appeared in total.
After the NEET UUG exam was cancelled due to an alleged paper leak, Union Education Minister had mentioned that starting from next year, the exam will be conducted in CBT mode.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) had allowed the candidates to change their city preference for the retest in case they had shifted from the previous address.The deadline to make these changes was until May 21, 2026.
Karnataka government urged the centre to scrap the NEET UG exam from the academic year 2026 onwards and to allow the states to conduct their own transparent and merit-based common exam test. The state urged this after the initial NEET UG exam was cancelled due to paper leak.
NTA had extended the deadline till June 22, 2026 for candidates to submit their bank account details to process examination fee refunds after the exam held in May was cancelled. Initially, the deadline was till May 27, 2026.
After the uncertainty of NEET UG exam after paper leak and cancellation of the initial exam, many medical aspirants from Tamil Nadu started to take admission into engineering courses. Within a few days more than 2.5 lakh students had enrolled in the course.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) was positioned to provide logistics support and to carry the NEET UG retest exam question paper packets to the key locations across the country.
In 2025, the topper of NEET UG exam was Mahesh Kumar from Rajasthan with a percentile of 99.9999547. The second position was grabbed by Utraksh Awadhiya from Madhya Pradesh.
The paper was of 180 questions for 720 marks in offline mode. The questions were from Physics, Chemistry, Biology (Zoology and Botany). Candidates were given four marks for every correct answer while one mark was deducted for a wrong answer. However, for the questions that were left unattempted, no marks were deducted.
The NEET UG retest was conducted between 2 PM and 5:15 PM. The exam was for 3 hour 15 minutes (195 minutes). The timing of the exam was extended by 15 minutes from 180 minutes to 195 minutes.
The admit card for the NEET UG re-exam was released on June 14, 2026. A few hours after the admit card was issued a technical glitch was seen in the portal which affected the candidate from downloading the admit card.
The government had temporarily blocked Telegram, a popular messaging application, till June 22, after the platform’s “non-responsiveness” in aiding the ongoing probe into the May 3 NEET-UG paper leak and for curbing the spread of misleading claims of access to the June 21 re-examination paper by handles on the platform.
A NEET-UG 2026 aspirant from Nagpur had been allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, just a day before the medical entrance re-examination. He had chosen Nagpur as his preferred test city when filling out the NEET UG application form. The student, who was originally assigned a centre at Saraswati Vidyalaya in Nagpur for the initial examination, discovered the error only after downloading his fresh admit card following the rescheduling of the exam in the wake of the alleged paper leak controversy.
On the day of the NEET UG re-exam, several states such as Odisha, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and a few others have provided free bus services to students. They were provided free ride by showing the admit card which worked as the bus ticket for the exam day.
After the initial May session exam was cancelled due to paper leak, NTA once again conducted the NEET UG re-exam on June 21, 2026.
According to the students and faculty, the re-neet paper was more demanding than the original paper of the May session. The overall difficulty has been rated anywhere from moderate to moderate-difficult, with Physics being the most challenging section for students.
The NEET UG 2026 provisional answer key will be out soon. Follow these steps to check the answer key PDF.
Step 1: Visit the official NEET website.
Step 2: Click on the link for "NEET UG 2026 Provisional Answer Key".
Step 3: Log in using the required credentials, if prompted.
Step 4: Download the answer key and response sheet.
Step 5: Match your responses with the official answers to estimate your score.
NEET aspirants should note that clearing the qualifying cut-off only makes them eligible to participate in counselling. The actual admission cut-off is much higher and varies across states, colleges and categories.
In simple terms:
Qualifying cut-off: Minimum score required to participate in counselling.
Admission cut-off: Score required to secure a seat in a particular college and category.
A candidate may qualify for counselling but still fall short of the marks needed for admission to a government MBBS, BDS or BAMS programme.
According to Dr Saurabh Kumar, CEO and founder of Shiksha Nation, qualifying the examination and securing a government medical seat are two very different benchmarks. "We estimate that General and EWS candidates may require around 540–550 marks to remain competitive for government MBBS seats, while 580+ marks could provide a stronger chance under the All India Quota," Kumar said. For reserved categories, the estimated competitive scores are:
After releasing the answer keys, the NTA will also provide an objection window. The candidates can challenge any answer they believe is incorrect. Challenges submitted by candidates will be reviewed by subject experts before the final answer key is prepared. The final answer key will form the basis for the declaration of NEET UG 2026 results.
The response sheet will contain the answers marked by candidates in the examination, while the provisional answer key will provide the officially accepted answers for each question.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is expected to release the provisional answer key and individual response sheets for the NEET UG 2026 re-examination shortly on its official website - neet.nta.nic.in. Once released, candidates will be able to access their recorded responses and the provisional answer key by logging in with their application number and date of birth.
The NTA has also acknowledged the contribution of academic experts from institutions across India who volunteered their time to help prepare multiple sets of question papers within a compressed timeline. It said nearly seven lakh personnel—including police teams, observers, invigilators and examination staff—were mobilised across the country to conduct the examination. The entire exercise was completed within a record 37 days.
NTA further highlighted the efforts taken to conduct NEET UG. In a post, NTA said that the entrance test was conducted with multiple layers of security and monitoring. Aadhaar-based biometric verification and face authentication, CCTV surveillance, signal jammers, and two-tier frisking supported by State Police forces were deployed across centres.
Command and control centres for CCTV monitoring were established at multiple levels—within the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Ministry of Education, 34 Centrally Funded Institutions under the Department of Higher Education, State Governments, and District Collectorates.
The conduct of the examination drew support from several ministries and agencies, including the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Posts, Indian Air Force, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Railways, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education, and banking partners such as SBI, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and UCO Bank, along with State Governments and numerous other stakeholders.
In a social media post, NTA has thanked multiple governing bodies that have supported the NEET re-test. NTA said that this wasn't the effort of a single institution. It was a collective national endeavour—bringing together governments, agencies, institutions and frontline personnel across the country — so that every candidate could focus on one thing alone: the examination before them.
Special arrangements were made for all candidates who required assistance, including more than 10,000 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Additional support was provided to around 81 candidates with medical conditions, including a student recovering from a road accident and another undergoing chemotherapy. Ensuring that these candidates could take the examination required extensive planning and coordination, much of which remained invisible to those appearing for the test.
On June 21, 2026, more than 20 lakh candidates appeared for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination across 5,440 centres in India and 14 centres overseas. The examination was conducted in 13 languages, including Hindi and English. As the nation reflects on that day, it is worth recognising the scale of coordination and commitment that made it possible.
Students who appeared for the exam should know that for every correct answer, there will be a +4, and for every wrong answer, there will be -1. If a question was left unattempted, there will be no marking for that question. The exam will be held in a pen-and-paper mode on an OMR sheet. The question paper consisted of 180 questions, and the exam was for 720 marks. The paper covered questions from Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The exam was conducted across 552 cities throughout India and 14 cities abroad on May 3 from 2 pm to 5 pm.
To know more details about the NEET UG answer key, results date, etc candidates can visit the official website of the NTA-neet.nta.nic.in.
