INI-CET Last 20 Days Plan: Day-by-Day Schedule to 1 Nov

Last verified: 12 October 2026 against AIIMS New Delhi (Examination Section): the key-dates calendar, Admission Notice No. 148/2026 and the INI-CET January 2027 prospectus, Part A.

This plan is for MBBS candidates sitting INI-CET for the January 2027 session who have studied every subject at least once and now have about 20 days left. That includes interns, as long as the 12-month internship ends on or before 31 January 2027, the cut-off in the prospectus. MDS candidates sit the same exam, but the subject plan below uses the MBBS subjects. The plan is built around the paper's locked-block format, because that changes how you should practise. If you're earlier in your preparation, start from the NEET PG and INI-CET hub instead, and keep the INI-CET January 2027 countdown open for a live day count.

When is INI-CET January 2027, and what does the paper look like?

AIIMS New Delhi has scheduled the exam for Sunday, 1 November 2026, with admit cards on Monday, 26 October and the result expected on Saturday, 7 November. It's a computer-based test of 200 questions in 3 hours, split into four parts of 50 questions with 45 minutes each.

The rules that should shape your last 20 days, all from the January 2027 prospectus:

• Marking: +1 for a correct answer, minus 1/3 for a wrong one, and 0 for a question left unanswered or marked for review.
• Question types: objective questions, both single-correct and multiple-correct.
• Locked blocks: you can only see the active part. When its 45 minutes run out it is submitted automatically and the next part opens, and you can't go back. AIIMS says questions are split into the parts on a random basis, so don't count on a block being sorted by subject.
• Ties: when two candidates have equal marks, the one with fewer negative marks ranks higher, before any other criterion.

One date to ignore: the 31 October row on the AIIMS key-dates page belongs to INI-SS, the super-speciality exam, whose result is due that day. It isn't an INI-CET date.

What should the last 20 days of INI-CET prep look like?

Use the first 13 days for one fast, subject-by-subject pass with a full grand test every third day, the next five for a second pass driven by your mistakes plus one last full test, and the day before the exam for light revision only. In our view, anything you meet for the first time after about 27 October has little time to settle, so the second pass is about recall, not reading.

That gives three phases:

1. Days 1–13 (13–25 October): first pass and four grand tests. One or two subjects a day from high-yield notes, then previous-year questions (PYQs) from your question bank. Full tests on Days 2, 5, 8 and 11.
2. Days 14–18 (26–30 October): second pass and the last full test. Subjects revised in pairs, in the order your tests say they're costing you marks. Grand test 5 on Day 15 (27 October) is the last full paper.
3. Day 19 (31 October): exam eve. Your own notes and error log, nothing else.

We assume about 8 focused hours on a normal study day. If you're an intern on postings with 4–5 hours, keep every test day and the same subject order, and cut each subject block down to high-yield notes plus PYQs.

What is the day-by-day INI-CET plan from 13 October to 1 November?

The table maps all 20 days to the 1 November exam: subject blocks on study days, a full grand test (GT) in the block format every third day in the first phase, and the logistics AIIMS has put on fixed dates. If you start late, keep the five test dates as they are and give up subject days instead: put any big clinical subject you missed into the next free block, and let a short subject you missed wait for the Day 17 rapid pass.

In what order should you revise subjects in the last 20 days?

Revise the large clinical subjects and the para-clinicals first, the pre-clinicals in the middle and the short subjects in the final week. The prospectus doesn't give a subject-wise split of the 200 questions, so this order is our planning choice: big subjects need the most days and a second look, and short subjects are quick to revise and stay fresher when done late.

• Big clinical subjects (Medicine, Surgery, OBG, Paediatrics) go on Days 1, 3 and 6, early enough to get a rapid second pass on Days 14 and 16.
• Para-clinical subjects (Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, PSM, Forensic Medicine) sit on Days 4, 7 and 10. Pathology and Pharmacology come early because so much clinical material leans on them.
• Pre-clinical subjects (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry) fall mid-plan on Days 9 and 10.
• Short subjects (ENT, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Anaesthesia, Radiology) get Days 12 and 13, except Orthopaedics, which rides with Surgery on Day 3. All seven get a second look on Day 17.

Let your own test data overrule this. If one subject costs you clearly more marks than the rest across GTs 1–3, swap it into the next free block. For the weak topics themselves, short repeated looks beat one long re-read (the spaced-repetition guide explains why), and the revision scheduler turns a list of topics into review dates; use the ones that fall before 1 November.

How should you take and review grand tests in the block format?

Sit every full test as four separate 45-minute blocks of 50 questions, with no going back once a block closes, and review it the same day. A single 3-hour clock trains you to park hard questions for the end, a habit the real paper punishes.

• Pace each block on its own clock. 45 minutes over 50 questions is 54 seconds a question. A useful checkpoint is question 25 at about the 22-minute mark.
• Settle, don't park. The prospectus scores both unanswered and marked-for-review questions as 0, and whatever is unsettled in a block is gone when it closes. Keep the last few minutes of each block for your marked questions.
• Sit at your exam time. AIIMS allots the centre and shift, and you'll only see your details once the admit card is out on 26 October. Until then, take tests in the morning; after that, match the timing on your admit card.
• Review the same day. We budget about 3 hours: every wrong answer, every right answer that was a guess, and every question that took more than two minutes.

How do you build an error log that actually changes your score?

An error log is a running list of every question you got wrong or guessed, tagged by why it went wrong, that you re-read in short daily sessions. In the last 20 days its job is to turn each test into a to-do list for the next subject block instead of a score you note and forget.

For each entry, record the test and block, the subject and topic, the error type, the one-line fact or rule you needed, and the date you'll see it again. We sort entries into four error types:

Worked example. Say GT 3 on 20 October goes like this (an illustration, not real data): 176 questions attempted, 128 right, 48 wrong and 24 left blank. The score is 128 − 48 × 1/3 = 112, so wrong answers cost 16 marks. Sorted in the error log, the 48 wrongs split into 20 knowledge gaps, 14 recall slips, 8 misreads and 6 block-pressure guesses. That decides where Days 9–13 go: the 20 gaps join the next subject blocks, and the 14 slips become one-line entries you read every evening. The 8 misreads were questions you knew; answered right, each was worth +1 instead of −1/3, a swing of about 10.7 marks (8 × 4/3) that needs a habit, not more reading.

On guessing: if a single-correct question has four options (the prospectus doesn't say how many, so that's our assumption), a blind guess averages zero, because 1/4 × 1 − 3/4 × 1/3 = 0. Rule out one option and the average turns slightly positive, about +0.11 a question; rule out two and it's +1/3. Since fewer negative marks also wins a tie, guess only after eliminating at least one option. The prospectus doesn't describe partial credit for multiple-correct questions, so be warier of guessing on those.

If you'd rather not keep this on paper, Kalnehi Daily (our app) has a mistake log for the entries and a Mock Test Tracker where you log each test's subject-wise scores and follow the trend.

How should you split each day's hours?

Put the hardest reading in the morning block, PYQs or the lighter subject after lunch, and the error log at night; on test days the test takes the morning and its review the afternoon. These are planning numbers built on our 8-hour assumption, so scale them to your own day.

What should you do on exam eve and exam day?

On 31 October, revise only your own notes and starred error-log entries, stop by early evening and go to bed at your usual time. On 1 November, carry the printed admit card, follow every instruction printed on it, including what else to bring, and take nothing electronic.

• Admit card: it's released on 26 October in MyPage on the AIIMS portal only; AIIMS doesn't email or post it, and you won't be let into the centre without a printed copy. Check every detail that day, because queries go through MyPage and can take up to 3 working days to answer.
• Centre and shift: AIIMS allots both and won't change them. The centre may even be in a state you didn't choose, so look it up on 26 October and plan travel then.
• Banned items: phones (even switched off), smart watches, Bluetooth devices, pen drives and any other device that could be used to communicate. AIIMS treats carrying one as misconduct.
• Sleep: from 26 October, once you know your exam timing, wake up at the time your exam-day alarm will ring, so that GT 5 and the exam itself fall in your alert hours.
• In the hall: pace each block on its own; if one block goes badly, it closes after 45 minutes, so start the next one fresh.

After the exam, the result is expected on 7 November and courses start on 1 January 2027. If you'll also sit NEET PG, our NEET PG and INI-CET study planner page covers planning a longer cycle around internship.