All India Pre-Medical/ Pre-Dental Entrance Examination (Aipmt)

The All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) is a yearly college entrance examination in India. The exam is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Delhi for admission to MBBS and BDS courses in several medical colleges around the country. Presently, 15% of the total seats in all medical and dental colleges run by the Union of India, state governments, municipal, or other local authorities in India, except in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, are reserved for candidates who qualify this examination.

The All-India standardised test was revolutionary in its concept as its primary aim was to enable equitable availability of medical education to all regions of the country and to foster inter-regional exchange. Till recently an additional uniqueness was that it was one of the few all India competitive examinations (along with the examinations for defence services) that was completely merit based and without any reservations. However, in 2006, under pressure from the Arjun Singh headed Human Resources ministry, reservation for SC,ST and OBC has been undertaken in AIPMT.

It consists of exam at one levels. First is preliminary conducted usually on 1st Sunday of the April month. The second is mains conducted in the month of May. It is the most awaited and respected exam of the pre-medical exams. AIPMT is equivalent to IIT JEE which is conducted for entrance to IITs in India.[1] In 2011 the preliminary examination was conducted on 3 April 2011 and the main exam is to be conducted on 15 May. Both the levels test the students on the subjects of physics (25%), chemistry (25%), and biology (50%).

The pattern of AIPMT is being changed with effect from 2010. Due to complaints about the unreliability of the subjective mains, the mains have been made completely objective like the preliminary. The preliminary examination consists of 200 question while the mains consists of 120 questions. The duration for both the examination is 3 hours.

Each item carries 4 marks. For each correct response the candidate will get 4 marks. For each incorrect response one mark will be deducted from the total score. No deduction from the total score will, however, be made if no response is indicated for an item in the answer sheet. The candidates are advised not to attempt such item in answer sheet, if they are not sure of the correct response. More than one answer indicated a question will be deemed as incorrect response and will be negatively marked.

The students securing above 50% marks in the preliminary examination qualify for the mains. The cutoff is lower for the reserved candidates. OBC reservation is being implemented as per the questionable directives of the government, but only in central institutes(i.e. not in most of the colleges covered under AIPMT).About 1900 MBBS and 250 odd dental seats are available through AIPMT, but ranks up to 2500 can reasonably hope for selection due to overlap with other entrances. In both the prelims and the mains NCERT books are used to prepare questions(almost 100% in biology).