JIPMER Nursing Officer Exam Pattern: NORCET Guide

The JIPMER Nursing Officer exam pattern is the NORCET pattern. JIPMER does not hold its own paper, and AIIMS New Delhi conducts the Nursing Officer Recruitment Common Eligibility Test (NORCET) in two computer based stages. This page follows the structure given in JIPMER's NORCET-9 advertisement (Notice No. 268/2025 dated 22 July 2025).

You will find the stage-wise tables, the negative marking rule, qualifying marks, how merit is built and a strategy for each section. JIPMER's later notices show that the next cycle, NORCET-10, ran with a Preliminary on 11 April 2026 and a Main on 30 April 2026. We could not open its advertisement, so confirm any change in the current notice.

Table of Contents

Exam pattern at a glance

Stage I pattern

• Sections: The paper has 5 sections of 20 questions, each open for 18 minutes. Sections appear one by one, and you cannot go back to a section after its time ends.

• Qualifying marks: 50 percentile for UR and EWS, 45 percentile for OBC and 40 percentile for SC and ST. PwBD candidates get 5 percentile relaxation, which makes it 45, 40 and 35 for the three groups.

• Merit use: Stage I is not used for deciding merit or rank.

Candidates who qualify, up to five times the total seats in each category (UR, OBC, SC, ST and EWS), are called for Stage II. All qualified PwBD candidates and tie cases with the last candidate on the list are also called. A candidate can qualify and still not be called for Stage II.

Stage II pattern

• Sections: The paper has 4 sections of 40 questions, each open for 45 minutes, in a fixed sequence. The exam submits automatically after 180 minutes.

• Content: Questions cover the entire syllabus of the nursing courses taught at the essential qualification level, focused on case scenarios for testing nursing skills competency.

• Qualifying marks: 50 percent for UR and EWS, 45 percent for OBC and 40 percent for SC and ST, with 5 percent relaxation for PwBD (45, 40 and 35 percent).

Marking scheme and negative marking

Each question has four options. The notification gives 100 marks for 100 questions in Stage I and 160 marks for 160 questions in Stage II, which means one mark for each correct answer. Each wrong answer carries a negative mark of one third. The notification does not describe a penalty for unanswered questions.

If the test runs in more than one shift, AIIMS applies its published normalisation procedure (Notice No. 35/2023 dated 20 January 2023) to the scores.

What the pattern means for you

• Marks per question: Every question is worth one mark in both stages, so no section is worth more per question than another.

• Cost of a wrong guess: A wrong answer removes one third of a mark. Guess only when you can remove at least two options.

• Where effort goes: Stage II alone decides merit, and it has 160 questions on the full nursing syllabus. Treat Stage I as a gate and Stage II as the real contest.

• Section locks: You cannot revisit a section, so use the last minutes of each section to review skipped and flagged questions in that section only.

Build your syllabus plan with our JIPMER Nursing Officer syllabus page, and use timed papers to practise 18-minute and 45-minute sections.

Merit list and seat allocation

1. Merit list: It is prepared from Stage II performance only, subject to the qualifying marks above.

2. Tie cases: Ties are resolved first by date of birth, with the older candidate placed higher, and then by fewer wrong answers or less negative marking.

3. Seat allocation: Seats are allotted in order of merit against the choices a candidate fills. There is one round of allocation and no waiting list, because NORCET is planned twice a year.

4. Joining: Failing to join an allotted seat cancels candidature for that NORCET, so fill only choices you will accept.

Time management

• Stage I: Aim to finish each 20-question section in about 15 minutes, leaving 3 minutes for review.

• Stage II: Plan about 40 minutes for each 40-question section, and keep 5 minutes for flagged questions.

• Reading cases: In Stage II, read the question line first, then the case, so you know what to look for.

Older pages and official source

Older pages may still show a different mark per question or an older pattern, so follow the official notification. Read the current advertisement on the JIPMER announcement page and the exam notices on aiimsexams.ac.in. For the full recruitment picture, see the JIPMER Nursing Officer recruitment overview.