INI-CET
Admission to MD, MS, MDS, six-year DM and six-year MCh courses at Institutes of National Importance: all AIIMS, JIPMER Puducherry, PGIMER Chandigarh, NIMHANS Bengaluru and SCTIMST Thiruvananthapuram. These seats are outside NEET-PG.
Eligibility
MBBS (for MD/MS/DM/MCh) or BDS (for MDS) from an NMC/DCI-recognised institution, with the compulsory rotating internship completed by the cut-off date in the prospectus for that session, and permanent registration. There is no age limit. The number of times a candidate may join a course at an INI is restricted; check the prospectus.
Age limit: No age limit
Exam pattern
Computer-based test of 3 hours with 200 multiple-choice questions, including single-best-answer, multiple-true-false, reason-assertion, image-based and match-the-following types. Each correct answer earns +1 and each wrong answer costs −1/3. MDS candidates take a separate dental paper. Qualifying is the 50th percentile for General and the 45th/40th percentile for reserved categories.
Syllabus at a glance
The entire MBBS curriculum (pre-clinical, para-clinical and clinical subjects), or the BDS curriculum for MDS. Questions are more concept-based, clinically oriented and analytical than NEET-PG, with emphasis on recent advances, updated guidelines and standard textbooks rather than coaching one-liners.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| January 2027 session result (exam held early Nov 2026) | Nov 2026 (expected, about a week after the exam) | expected |
| January 2027 session seat allocation rounds | Nov-Dec 2026 (expected) | expected |
| July 2027 session registration | Mar-Apr 2027 (expected) | expected |
| INI-CET July 2027 session exam | May 2027 (expected) | expected |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease by Kumar, Abbas and Aster
- Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology by John E. Hall
- Essentials of Medical Pharmacology by K.D. Tripathi
- Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine by K. Park
- Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery (Williams, O'Connell and McCaskie)
- Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (for reference)
How toppers play it
- Because of the −1/3 penalty against +1, a blind guess among four options has zero expected value; guess only when you can rule out at least one option.
- Go deeper than one-liners: INI-CET favours standard-textbook concepts, recent guideline updates and multi-step clinical reasoning.
- Practise the unusual formats (multiple true-false, reason-assertion, sequencing) as they consume more time; target about 50 seconds a question.
- Seats are allotted by rank and preference across a small number of institutes; study previous seat allocation results to judge which branch-institute pairs are realistic.
- Plan around both sessions each year: preparation for NEET-PG covers most of the syllabus, so take INI-CET each cycle for extra attempts.