FMGE vs NExT: what MBBS-abroad students actually need to know

The exam that decides everything

To practise medicine in India after a foreign MBBS, you must clear a national licensing screen. Right now — and for every graduate sitting in 2026 — that screen is the FMGE, the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination. Not the NExT. The distinction is not academic: it changes how you prepare, when you prepare, and what a counsellor who tells you otherwise is really selling.

The honest framing is this: the degree is the easy half. The exam is the hard half, and it waits at the very end, when changing course costs the most. Understand it before you choose a university, not in your final year.

The FMGE — the live exam, by the numbers

The FMGE is conducted by NBEMS (the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences), twice a year, in June and December sessions. The format is fixed and uniform: one paper of 300 multiple-choice questions, with a pass mark of 150/300 — exactly 50%, with no category relaxation. The same bar applies to every candidate.

These aren’t our numbers to set or soften; always confirm the current information bulletin and latest results on the NBEMS site (natboard.edu.in) before relying on any figure, including ours.

MCQs in a single FMGE paper

300

MCQs in a single FMGE paper

pass mark — uniform, no relaxation

150/300

pass mark — uniform, no relaxation

June & December sessions

2×/yr

June & December sessions

How many actually sit it — and what we won’t pretend to know

The one session figure that is officially traceable: 35,819 candidates appeared in the FMGE June 2024 sitting, per a PIB release. That number alone tells you the return journey is real and crowded — this is a mass exam, not a formality you clear on the way out the airport.

On pass rates, we are deliberately careful, and we want you to notice that. The session-wise pass percentages circulating online are not officially traceable to an NBEMS or PIB document, they vary between sources, and so we do not republish them here as fact. That is a policy, not a gap — the same standard our licensing pages keep. When a figure cannot be sourced to the body that issued it, treating it as true is exactly the behaviour that gets students hurt. For the current official position — which session is scheduled, which has results, and where NExT stands — see our licensing live-status board, where every claim links to its document.

What the hard exam actually means for you

Two honest readings, held together. First: the FMGE is genuinely hard. Anyone presenting MBBS abroad as a smooth, guaranteed path without putting this exam at the centre of the conversation is hiding the single most important variable in the decision. Second: any national average is exactly that — an average across every university and every level of preparation. Students from institutions with structured, English-medium teaching and a real exam track record do meaningfully better than a headline number suggests. The average is a warning to take seriously, not a verdict on you personally.

The practical consequence: budget for the possibility of more than one attempt — in time, in money, and in morale. There is no cap on attempts, but every six-month cycle has a real cost, and a calm plan that allows for a second sitting beats a panicked one that assumed a single pass.

The degree is the easy half. The exam is the hard half — and it waits until changing course is expensive.

NExT — legislated, announced, then deferred

The National Exit Test is provided for in the NMC Act 2019 — Section 15 envisages a single common test serving as the licentiate exam, the PG-entry rank, and the screen for foreign graduates. The NExT Regulations were even gazetted in June 2023. And then, within weeks, it stalled: the NMC publicly deferred the MBBS NExT on 13 July 2023, "till further directions" from the Health Ministry, and AIIMS Delhi cancelled the scheduled mock test days later. No MBBS NExT date has been announced since.

So be wary of anyone stating that "NExT has replaced the FMGE." That is not accurate today, and it has not been accurate at any point in 2026. The FMGE remains the active licensing exam — see our live-status board for the current official position, with the NMC deferral notice attached.

If you’re starting a 6-year course now

If you enrol today, you graduate around 2032 — far enough out that NExT could, in principle, be operational by then. So plan for both without panicking about either. The good news is that the preparation which survives both exams is identical: learn medicine properly, in English, throughout the course, aligned to the Indian curriculum from year one. NExT is expected to test clinical application rather than pure recall, which only rewards that same depth.

The strategic move, then, is made before you fly, not in your final year: pick a university with a credible exam track record and structured English-medium teaching. Those factors correlate with better outcomes whichever exam you ultimately sit, because the underlying medicine you must know does not change between FMGE and NExT.

Don’t forget NEET — the gate before the gate

One requirement sits ahead of all of this. A qualifying NEET-UG score is mandatory to register and practise in India after a foreign MBBS — the "MBBS abroad without NEET" pitch is a myth, and a regulatory one, not our opinion. The scorecard is valid for three years for abroad admission, so the sequencing matters: qualify first, then choose your university, then plan the FMGE.

Hold the whole chain in view and the picture is calm rather than frightening: NEET-UG → an FMGL-2021-compliant degree → the FMGE (or NExT, if it ever arrives) → a 12-month CRMI internship in India → State Medical Council registration. Every step is a rule, and every rule is checkable in advance.