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Friday, 16 October

NEET UG 2021 · Code O1

NEET 2021 paper, question by question

All 200 questions from the NEET UG 2021 paper, tagged to chapter, topic and idea. How hard it was, what it asked, what was new and what came back.

Questions
200
200 printed, 180 answered
Chapters asked
83
8 usual chapters skipped
Easy / hard
59% / 3%
share of the paper
Need a calculation
21%
Physics alone: 58%
New ideas
86%
of questions tested an idea not asked before
Use a figure
10%
10 in Physics, 9 in Chemistry
From Class 12
55%
of the questions, all subjects
Same idea as last year
3.5%
7 questions

Key findings · NEET 2021

  1. 1

    59% of questions were easy, 5 points above the ten-year average of 54%.

  2. 2

    About 42 questions (21%) needed a calculation, against 21% on average; Physics alone was 58% calculation.

  3. 3

    Biotechnology and its Applications got the biggest boost: 6 questions against a usual 2.3, followed by Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production (4 vs 1.0).

  4. 4

    Physics tilted to Class 12: 32 of 50 questions (Class 12 share the highest in ten years).

  5. 5

    86% of tagged questions tested an idea no earlier paper had asked, yet 99% came from a topic seen before.

Subjects

How the 2021 paper split

Questions per subject, the Class 11 and Class 12 balance, and how hard each part was.

Physics 2021

25% of the paper

50questions · 22 chapters

Class 11 and 12

1832
  • Class 11
  • Class 12

Difficulty

1829
  • Easy
  • Medium
  • Hard
New ideas
41 (82%)
Use a figure
10
Calculation
58%
Application
12%
Figure-based
12%

Physics 2021, question by questionTen years of Physics

Chemistry 2021

25% of the paper

50questions · 27 chapters

Class 11 and 12

2129
  • Class 11
  • Class 12

Difficulty

3019
  • Easy
  • Medium
  • Hard
New ideas
48 (96%)
Use a figure
9
Recall
44%
Calculation
22%
Application
12%

Chemistry 2021, question by questionTen years of Chemistry

Biology 2021

50% of the paper

100questions · 34 chapters

Botany and Zoology

5050
  • Botany
  • Zoology

Class 11 and 12

5248
  • Class 11
  • Class 12

Difficulty

6929
  • Easy
  • Medium
  • Hard
New ideas
83 (83%)
Use a figure
1
Recall
59%
Concept
18%
Match the lists
17%

Biology 2021, question by questionTen years of Biology

Compared

Versus 2020 and the ten-year average

Each measure for this paper, next to the year before and the average of all ten papers. Changes are in percentage points.

  • Questions in the paper200
    2020: 180 +20Avg: 188 +13
  • Chapters asked83
    2020: 89 -6Avg: 84 -1
  • Easy questions58.5%
    2020: 66.7% -8.2Avg: 54.0% +4.5
  • Hard questions3.0%
    2020: 0.0% +3.0Avg: 2.7% 0.3
  • Need a calculation21.0%
    2020: 21.7% -0.7Avg: 21.2% -0.2
  • Straight recall52.5%
    2020: 54.4% -1.9Avg: 46.3% +6.2
  • Use a figure10.0%
    2020: 4.4% +5.6Avg: 10.5% -0.5
  • Statements, assertion–reason, match13.5%
    2020: 10.0% +3.5Avg: 14.5% -1.0
  • Test a new idea86.0%
    2020: 83.9% +2.1Avg: 73.9% +12.1
  • Same idea as the year before3.5%
    2020: 6.1% -2.6Avg: 6.8% -3.3
  • From Class 1254.5%
    2020: 52.8% +1.7Avg: 51.9% +2.6
  • Physics: easy36.0%
    2020: 80.0% -44.0Avg: 47.0% -11.0
  • Chemistry: easy60.0%
    2020: 60.0% 0.0Avg: 46.6% +13.4
  • Biology: easy69.0%
    2020: 63.3% +5.7Avg: 61.0% +8.0

Repetition

What came back, and what was new

Almost every question sits in a chapter NEET has asked before, and most in a known topic. The exact idea is a different story: most are new.

Questions whose … had appeared before

ANY PAPER 2017–2020
  • Chapter100%
  • Topic99%
  • Exact idea14%
  • Exact idea, in 20204%

Topic and idea shares count only the questions we could tag to a topic. The ten-paper window grows each year, so early years look newer than they are.

Questions testing a new idea, by year

Share of each paper whose idea had never been asked in an earlier paper.

Same idea as the year before

Share of each paper that repeated an idea from the previous paper.

Chapters

Which chapters got more, and which got less

Questions a chapter had in 2021 minus its usual: its ten-year average per 180 questions. Counts are scaled to 180 questions so years compare fairly.

More than usual

Less than usual, or skipped

All 83 chapters asked

Biology · 34

Topics

Busiest topics in 2021

Question format

SHARE OF 2021
  • One-line MCQ · 129 Q65%
  • Numerical · 28 Q14%
  • Match the lists · 23 Q12%
  • Figure-based · 9 Q5%
  • Other · 7 Q4%
  • Two statements · 3 Q2%
  • Assertion–reason · 1 Q1%

What the question tests

SHARE OF 2021
  • Recall · 105 Q53%
  • Concept · 29 Q14%
  • Calculation · 28 Q14%
  • Application · 18 Q9%
  • Multi-step · 15 Q8%
  • Data or graph · 4 Q2%
  • Figure reading · 1 Q1%

Drill down

What 2021 asked, and its history

Every chapter the 2021 paper asked, with all its topics and ideas. Counts and squares cover all ten papers; rows 2021 did not ask are faded, and questions from other years link to their own paper.

  • Open100 this paper940 · 50%909090901001001001009090
  • Open50 this paper469 · 25%45454545504950504545
  • Open50 this paper466 · 25%43454545505049504544

Squares are the ten papers, 2017 to 2026; darker means more questions. Share is of the level above.

Every question

All 200 questions of NEET 2021

The opening words of each question as printed, with its chapter, topic and how hard it was. “New idea” means no earlier paper had tested it.

Subject
Difficulty
Idea
200 of 200 questions

Physics50 questions

18 easy29 medium3 hard

Chemistry50 questions

30 easy19 medium1 hard

Botany50 questions

35 easy13 medium2 hard

Zoology50 questions

34 easy16 medium0 hard

Questions from the official NEET UG papers published by NTA (CBSE before 2019). Topic and idea tags, difficulty and notes are Lumi’s.

Other papers

Every NEET paper, 2017 to 2026

How is difficulty decided?
Each question is rated easy, medium or hard by how many steps and how much recall it needs. It is Lumi’s rating, not NTA’s, and it is the same scale for every year.
What is a “new idea”?
Inside each topic we tag the exact idea a question tests. A new idea is one that no earlier paper in our data had tested. The first year, 2017, has nothing to compare with.
Does this tell me what will come next year?
No. It shows weightage and patterns from past papers. Chapters and topics repeat; exact questions rarely do.

All NEET chapters