NEET 2025: Time Shortened by 20 Minutes, Prepare Now

Since NEET 2025 is around the corner, there’s a significant change in the NEET time duration to be aware of: the exam duration has been shortened by 20 minutes. Time management will become more crucial in NEET 2025 because NTA has reduced the total examination time by 20 minutes. Candidates must prioritize time management alongside maintaining their speed as they receive less examination time to finish the same number of questions. 

Your success depends on refining your preparation approach for better performance. Prioritize your ability to finish questions rapidly while maintaining your higher accuracy by giving mock tests timed under specific conditions. Also, develop better approaches to problem-solving. 

Understanding the revised time format remains essential for feeling confident and preventing unwanted stress when you appear for the minimum exam day. A total of 20 minutes cut from the examination time will significantly affect your overall scoring ability. Start preparing now, optimize your study routine, and ensure you're fully ready for this change. Prioritize practicing under time constraints so you develop better preparation for NEET 2025.

20-Minute Reduction: Is Your NEET Prep Ready for the Change?

20 minutes has been reduced in NEET 2025. From this year onwards, those who will be appearing for NEET 2025, will get 20 minutes less time. Therefore, mock tests of PrepMed are also prepared following this approach. The main hurdle students are facing is not being able to complete their papers on time. They are unable to score their best because of the 20-minute reduced time. Let’s discuss how to overcome this problem of reduced time duration from the total exam duration. The first thing that needs to be followed is strategic time management. The reduction of time from 200 minutes to 180 minutes and completing the same number of questions within this time limit is the major thing to be followed right now. Follow the major points to overcome this challenge:

1. Readability: Many of the aspirants try to read the first line of the question at first, then they proceed with the second line, third, and back to the first because they forget the information in the first line. But this can’t be the technique in the time-restricted exam. 

• You need to have your full concentration while reading the question from the beginning. 
• You have to read the options carefully, then calculate and reach the final answer. 
• So, if you spend approx 1 minute reading the question, you will lose your time while calculating your answer. 
• Remember, both in physics and chemistry, you are allowed to spend only 1 minute reading, calculating, and marking the answer on the OMR bubble sheet. 
• The solution to this problem is when you solve MC questions at home, take care that your readability improves. 
• Train yourself in these 2 months in such a way that when you solve the questions at home, you constantly try to improve your readability by marking the important values and details given in the question. 

2. Return Back: Majority of the NEET aspirants and the board aspirants know the technique of returning back. Return back technique is the way of solving the easy questions at first and then answering the difficult questions later. But trust that, in a time-constrained exam like NEET where time is very limited, you can’t follow the return-back technique. 

• When the time span was 3 hours and 20 minutes, returning back to 4-5 questions from each of the subjects was possible. 
• But in NEET 2025, in which you are not allowed to spend more than an hour in each subject, you can return back to only 1-2 questions per subject. 
• If you return back to more questions, you won’t be able to ensure proper time management. 
• Practice giving mock tests at the institutes in this specific way and follow the same technique on the exam day of NEET 2025. 

3. Avoid Bulk Bubbling: In this 20-minute reduced time for NEET 2025, avoid bulk bubbling. Now, what is bulk bubbling? Suppose if you solve 5 questions and mark the answers on the question paper, and keep it for later to bubble it all together on the OMR sheet, this is bulk bubbling. Also, if you skip a question in between 2 questions, while bulk bubbling, you might make the bubbling mistake. So to avoid this, as soon as you solve a question, mark it instantly on the OMR sheet. Remember, build good habits as good habits bring you good success and your desired rank. 

NOTE: 

• Students get confused to choose which subject to attempt first. However it depends on the confidence criteria of the individual students. 
• For example, if you have a good confidence in biology, like if you can complete biology in 40-45 minutes, opt biology first. 
• Second, you can attempt either chemistry or physics depending on your preparation and confidence. 
• And third, attempt the subject in which you are least confident. 
• Take 45 minutes to complete the first subject, give 55 minutes to the subject you are attempting at second, and give majority time to the last subject. 
• In this way you can improve your overall score. Implement this technique in your mock test positively.

Conclusion:

All NEET 2025 aspirants must prioritize their attention to the significant time reduction of 20 minutes in the upcoming NEET 2025 exam. You need to modify your approach to exam preparation because of the shortened exam period by following time management techniques and improving your problem-solving abilities. Prioritizing speed and accuracy will be key to performing well under time constraints. Start adjusting your study routine now to stay ahead and ensure that you're fully prepared for the exam date on 4th May 2025. The correct preparation technique will help you deal with the shorter exam duration with more confidence to boost your exam success.
 

Also check:

Top 2 Mistakes You Must Avoid to Boost Your NEET 2025 Score

NEET 2025: Bonus Marking Rules

NEET 2025: Physics Paper Pattern

NEET 2025: Chemistry Paper Pattern

NEET 2025: Biology Paper pattern