The National Testing Agency (NTA) has released the final answer key for the NEET UG 2026 re-examination, confirming that one Physics question has been dropped for having no correct option among its answer choices, while another Physics question now carries two accepted correct answers. The correction directly affects how scores, cutoffs, and merit positions will be calculated for the more than 20 lakh candidates who appeared for the re-test held on June 21, 2026.

Why the Re-Exam Was Held

The original NEET UG 2026 exam, scheduled for May 3, 2026, was cancelled following a paper leak controversy that triggered widespread protests, including demonstrations organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar. NTA subsequently conducted a re-examination on June 21, 2026, across 5,440 centres in India and 14 centres abroad, with more than 20 lakh candidates appearing for the retest.

What the Answer Key Reveals

NTA first released the provisional answer key on June 25, 2026, and opened a challenge window until June 28 for candidates to raise objections. After reviewing the objections with subject experts, the agency released the final answer key on July 16, 2026. The final key confirms that in each of the four question paper codes, one Physics question has been dropped and full marks awarded to every candidate, while a separate Physics question now carries two accepted correct options instead of one. No discrepancies were found in the Chemistry or Biology sections.

  • Provisional answer key released: June 25, 2026
  • Objection window: June 25 to June 28, 2026
  • Final answer key released: July 16, 2026
  • One Physics question dropped in every code (all candidates get bonus marks)
  • One Physics question has two accepted correct options in every code
  • No errors identified in Chemistry or Biology sections
  • Re-exam conducted on June 21, 2026, across 5,440 centres in India and 14 abroad

Code-Wise Details of the Dropped and Two-Answer Questions

Question Paper CodeDropped Question No.Question with Two Correct Answers
Code 50Q26Q38 (Options 2 and 3 both correct)
Code 60Q43Q36 (Options 1 and 4 both correct)
Code 70Q40Q22 (Options 3 and 4 both correct)
Code 80Q2Q5 (Options 1 and 2 both correct)

According to earlier reporting on the provisional key, the dropped question in each code related to a Vernier Callipers reading, where none of the four listed options matched the correct measurement. The question with two accepted answers relates to the characteristics of electromagnetic waves, where two of the listed options were both found to be technically correct depending on interpretation.

The Physics question paper has two mistakes in it, the answer keys uploaded by NTA show.— The Wire, July 2026

Who Gets Bonus Marks?

For the dropped question, every candidate who appeared for that particular question paper code will receive four bonus marks, regardless of whether they attempted the question or which option they selected. This is standard NTA policy for questions found to have no correct answer among the given options. For the question with two accepted correct answers, only candidates who selected one of the two valid options will receive four marks; those who chose either of the two incorrect options, or left the question unattempted, will not receive credit for it.

Impact on Score and Cutoff

With the total marks for NEET UG remaining at 720, the dropped question does not reduce the maximum possible score since every candidate receives credit for it. However, the added four bonus marks, along with the two-answer correction, can shift raw scores upward for a meaningful share of candidates, which in turn may push cutoffs and closing ranks slightly higher than they would have been under the original answer key. Candidates are advised to recalculate their expected score using the final answer key rather than the provisional one, since the two are not identical for the affected questions.

What Candidates Should Do Next

Candidates should download the final answer key relevant to their question paper code from the official NTA website and match it carefully against their OMR responses to estimate their score. Since the final key has already incorporated the dropped question and the two-answer correction, no manual adjustment is required beyond simply following the published key. Result and merit list preparation will be based on this final answer key, so any further review or verification should be based on it rather than the earlier provisional version.

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