NEET-PG Percentile, Normalisation and Tie-Break Rules

Last verified: 30 September 2026 against NEET-PG 2026 Information Bulletin, Chapter 10, NEET-PG 2025 Information Bulletin, para 10.1 and NBEMS notice on NEET-PG 2025 percentiles.

How does NBEMS calculate the NEET-PG percentile?

This is para 10.2 of the NEET-PG 2026 bulletin. Two things follow from it. First, the percentile is about how many people you beat or equalled, not what share of the 720 marks you scored. Second, the marks needed for any percentile move every year with the paper's difficulty and the size of the field. An illustration with made-up numbers: if 2,00,000 candidates appear and 1,50,000 of them score at or below you, your percentile is 100 × 1,50,000 ÷ 2,00,000 = 75.

There is no re-evaluation, re-checking or re-totalling. Before the result, NBEMS accepts challenges to questions for technical errors for two calendar days after the exam; questions found technically incorrect or ambiguous get full marks for everyone who appeared (paras 10.4–10.6).

What are the qualifying percentiles by category?

Below these percentiles a candidate is not considered for MD / MS / PG Diploma admission. Qualifying is not the same as being eligible for a particular quota: All India Quota and state quota eligibility are set by the counselling authorities. For the marks each percentile worked out to this year, see the NEET-PG 2026 cutoff page.

Can the qualifying percentile be reduced?

Yes. After the result, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare can direct a lower cut-off for later counselling rounds. The latest example is NBEMS's notice of 13 January 2026 for the third round of NEET-PG 2025 counselling (scores out of 800, the 2025 paper's maximum):

The notice states that ranks did not change — only who was eligible to take part in that round. A negative cut-off is possible because wrong answers carry negative marks.

How does normalisation work when NEET-PG has two shifts?

When candidates sit different papers in different shifts, raw marks are not comparable. The NEET-PG 2025 bulletin (NEET-PG 2025 Information Bulletin, para 10.1–10.3), written for a two-shift exam, allotted candidates to shifts at random and converted each candidate's marks with this formula:

In plain words, each shift's scale is stretched so that its top performers and its “mean plus one standard deviation” point line up with the same points for all candidates together. A harder shift is therefore not penalised. Under that bulletin, raw marks were not used for ranking or qualifying and were not disclosed; state merit lists used normalised marks. The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin schedules a single shift and contains no normalisation clause, so 2026 percentiles were computed directly on the total score.

How are ties broken?

The NEET-PG 2026 bulletin (Chapter 10, “Tie Breaker Criteria”) applies these in order until the tie is resolved:

1. Fewer negative (wrong) responses in the whole paper
2. Fewer negative responses in Section A
3. Fewer negative responses in Section B
4. Fewer negative responses in Section C
5. Fewer negative responses in Section D
6. Fewer negative responses in Section E
7. Higher aggregate percentage in all MBBS professional exams (FMGE percentage for foreign graduates), rounded down to two decimals
8. Older candidate (date of birth)

The MBBS aggregate you type into the application form is checked at admission. If it turns out wrong and it was used to break your tie, NBEMS cancels your candidature — another reason to fill the application form from your marksheets, not memory.