With the NEET exam date approaching soon, many students are ensuring they give their best in NEET UG 2024. There are rumours and articles about the number of applicants for NEET 2024. People are talking about a rise in difficulty. Maybe because of this, you might also have a question in the back of your mind, will competition increase in NEET 2024?

Many of you already know that NEET, as a competitive exam, has become essential to get accepted into a medical college. Because of that, students who want to join a medical college tend to not miss out on applying for NEET 2024. There are many factors that should be looked at when talking about the increase in competition in NEET. Is the competition really increasing or is it just a rumour? Is it worth worrying about?

So, let’s talk about it in detail and know if the competition in NEET increases. If yes, what are the reasons that play a vital role in the increment of NEET competition every year? 

Brief on NEET 2024

We all are talking about this topic just before the NEET UG 2024, so for a better understanding we will discuss the competition in NEET 2024. 

As you all know the NEET UG 2024 is scheduled to be held on 5th of May. However, NEET 2024 may be postponed due to the elections. But, there is not a high possibility of it, so we are not expecting it to happen. 

This year, we have seen a lot of changes in the NEET UG 2024, where there is a high growth of applicants. Second thing is the students are also more prepared than in the last years. So, for sure, competition in NEET UG 2024 will be affected. Let’s see it in detail. 

Will Competition Increase in NEET 2024?

To answer this question bluntly, yes. There will be an increase in competition in NEET 2024. The number of applicants for NEET 2024 is already much higher than in previous years. In 2023, the number of applicants for NEET had crossed 20 Lakhs. Compared to the number of seats available, that is a very high number.

For NEET 2024, we know that the number of applicants has easily passed 25 Lakhs. Knowing this, we can guess that the NEET 2024 competition increase can be greater than people might have expected. Not only that, but the selection ratio has also decreased as the number of seats available has not grown according to the number of participants. It is possible that the NEET 2024 cutoff might increase if we consider just how intense the competition will be.

Reasons Why Competition Will Increase in NEET 2024

As mentioned before, there are many things that influence the level of competition for an entrance exam, such as NEET. With each passing year, students have more materials to study from, more NEET aspirants, tougher selection ratios, and so on. But how have these factors affected the increase in competition in NEET?

The selection criteria also have an impact because students’ interests are shifting more in this direction. As more students register for entrance exams, the number of seats at famous colleges does not rise proportionally, which leads to an increase in competition in NEET.

Different preparation strategies have come up in the past few years. This is due to the evaluations of the cutoff and paper level throughout the past few years.

More Applicants Every Year:

Every year, more students are applying for NEET than ever before. The number of applicants has grown so large that even news outlets are picking up on it. Some even have articles about how the number of UG NEET applicants has broken previous year’s records consecutively for 9 straight years.

The number of students who applied for NEET was over 20 lakhs in 2023. And even before the application period was over, the number of applicants for NEET 2024 had crossed 25 lakhs. Moreover, after discussing with some of the top NEET coachings in Sikar, we can say the number of serious NEET aspirants has also increased. So, it’s not just that only applications are increased, but also that all the aspirants are preparing seriously this year. 

NEET Cutoff Increase:

With a rise in applicants, people might think that the cutoff will also increase. And they might be right. However, if we look at the NEET cutoff for the past few years, we can see that there hasn’t been any dramatic increase between two years. According to that data, even if the number of applicants has gone through the roof, it doesn’t mean that the cutoff will increase drastically as well. But one can never be too careful.

Selection Ratio:

In the last few years, there has been a big drop in the selection ratio. With the rate at which it has dropped in previous years and how the number of applicants keeps increasing by larger margins, we can assume that the selection ratio will keep getting tough unless the colleges are able to add more seats and accommodate more students wishing to pursue medical subjects.

However, specialists estimate that when it comes to talking about the upcoming years, the competition will probably get more intense because of a few factors. These factors are:-

• The increase in the number of students who want a career in the field of medicine.
• Limited growth rate in medical colleges and medical seats offered by NEET.
• Various types of reservation rules.

Increasing Availability of Free Resources:

With the rapid growth of technology and the internet, there are many ways to get study material for free. A few years ago, people who could buy some of the more popular study materials would have an advantage over others when preparing for any kind of exam. But now, as materials are easily available on the internet, even study material for a competitive exam like NEET is available at the click of a button.

Another fact to consider is that a popular way to prepare for exams is using previous year’s question papers. With each passing year that NEET is conducted, there are more question papers to help aspirants prepare for their upcoming NEET exam.

Not only that but in the past few years, with the boom of online education, many online courses for NEET are also available now. These courses help students to prepare for NEET to the best of their ability. And with these courses accessible even on your phone, it has made preparations easy for all. While it gives every NEET aspirant the same amount of resources to work with, it also means a competition increase in NEET.

Conclusion

Will competition increase in NEET 2024? Yes. With all the factors discussed, including more applications than last year, limited MBBS seats, selection ratio, etc. It is safe to say that there will be an increase in competition in NEET. It is motivating that many students are submitting applications for NEET 2024. However institutions and colleges have not added seats at a comparable rate to accommodate this rise in applicants.

This leads to a decline in the selection ratio, which has already dropped quite a bit in the last few years. In addition, the cutoff typically rises based on the number of applications. With all of this information and more available to base our decisions on, it’s clear that there will be an increase in competition in NEET 2024.