NEET PG 2026: for the first time, candidates will see their own recorded answers alongside the key
Following a Supreme Court directive on transparency, NBEMS will publish the provisional answer key together with each candidate’s recorded responses. Results are due by 30 September, opening counselling for 46,220 PG seats.
For years the central complaint about NEET PG was not the difficulty of the paper but the opacity after it: a score arrived, and there was no way for a candidate to see what they had actually marked. That ends this cycle. NBEMS will release the provisional answer key along with each candidate's recorded responses — a first for the exam, and the result of a Supreme Court directive on transparency.
What you will be able to see
The document is expected to carry question IDs, the official correct answer, the response recorded against your roll number, and the marks allotted. That is enough to recompute your own score and to challenge a specific question rather than a total. Scoring is unchanged: four marks for a correct answer, minus one for a wrong one.
The timeline
- Exam held: 30 August, with a re-exam on 5 September for candidates hit by technical disruption at Jaipur. Around 2.65 lakh candidates sat the paper across 1,111 centres.
- Answer key and responses: date not yet notified; expected shortly, on natboard.edu.in.
- Result: by 30 September 2026.
- Counselling: begins after the result, for 46,220 PG seats across 527 colleges — 280 government and 247 private — covering MD, MS and PG diploma seats.
Last year's cut-offs, for calibration only
| Category | Percentile | 2025 marks |
|---|---|---|
| General / EWS | 50th | 276 |
| General-PwBD | 45th | 255 |
| SC / ST / OBC | 40th | 235 |
Treat those as a reference point, not a forecast. The percentile is fixed; the marks that correspond to it move every year with the paper's difficulty and the candidate pool — and, as the Supreme Court was separately told this week in the NEET SS matter, the government has cut qualifying percentiles in the past when seats went unfilled.
When the key drops, do this the same day: download your response sheet, recompute your score by hand, and note every question you intend to object to with the question ID. Objection windows are short and they do not reopen.
CareerBox News Desk — reporting on the NEET PG 2026 answer key and result schedule notified by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS). Official portal: natboard.edu.in. Dates and eligibility change; confirm them on the official portal before you act.