NEET Chemistry Syllabus: Units, Subtopics and Strategy

Chemistry inside the NEET UG paper

You face one pen and paper test with 180 compulsory questions: 45 in physics, 45 in chemistry and 90 in biology. Every question has four options and one correct answer. You earn 4 marks for a right answer, lose 1 for a wrong one and get zero for leaving it blank.

Chemistry questions come in three flavours. Physical chemistry gives numericals that reward practice with formulae. Inorganic chemistry is close to pure recall from NCERT text and tables. Organic chemistry mixes reaction mechanisms, named reactions and conversions. Because each type needs a different habit, it helps to plan them separately.

Physical chemistry units

1. Some basic concepts in chemistry: the mole and molar mass, laws that govern how elements combine, atomic and molecular masses, working out empirical and molecular formulae from percentage data, and stoichiometric calculations
2. Atomic structure: electromagnetic radiation, photoelectric effect, hydrogen spectrum, Bohr model, de Broglie relation, Heisenberg's principle, the four quantum numbers, orbital shapes, and the filling rules of Aufbau, Pauli and Hund
3. Chemical bonding and molecular structure: how ionic bonds and covalent bonds form, lattice enthalpy, Fajan's rule, dipole moment, VSEPR, valence bond theory, hybridisation, molecular orbital theory for homonuclear diatomics, bond order, hydrogen bonding, basics of metallic bonding
4. Chemical thermodynamics: system and surroundings, state functions, first law, enthalpy, Hess's law, enthalpies of formation, combustion and bond dissociation, entropy, Gibbs energy and spontaneity, Gibbs energy and equilibrium constant
5. Solutions: concentration terms, Raoult's law and deviations from it, the four colligative properties, van't Hoff factor, abnormal molar mass
6. Equilibrium: law of mass action, Kp and Kc, Le Chatelier's principle; ionic equilibrium, acid base theories, pH, buffer solutions, hydrolysis of salts, solubility product, common ion effect
7. Redox reactions and electrochemistry: oxidation number, balancing redox equations, conductance and molar conductivity, Kohlrausch's law, electrochemical cells, electrode potential, Nernst equation, cell potential and Gibbs energy, dry cell, lead accumulator, fuel cells
8. Chemical kinetics: rate of reaction and factors affecting it, order and molecularity, rate law, zero and first order reactions, half life, activation energy, Arrhenius equation, collision theory for bimolecular gaseous reactions (no derivation)

Inorganic chemistry units

1. Periodic classification and periodicity: the modern periodic law and the four blocks, and how size, ionisation energy, electron gain enthalpy, valency and oxidation states change across periods and down groups
2. p block elements: groups 13 to 18, trends in physical and chemical properties, and the unusual behaviour of the first element of each group
3. d and f block elements: trends across the transition series, colour, magnetic and catalytic behaviour, complex and interstitial compounds, alloys, preparation and properties of potassium dichromate and potassium permanganate, lanthanoids and lanthanoid contraction, actinoids
4. Coordination compounds: Werner's theory, ligands, coordination number, denticity and chelation, IUPAC naming, isomerism, valence bond and crystal field approaches, importance in biology and industry

Inorganic questions tend to be lifted closely from NCERT lines, tables and exceptions, so reading the textbook itself more than once pays off here more than anywhere else.

Organic units in the NEET chemistry syllabus

1. Purifying and characterising organic compounds: crystallisation, sublimation, distillation, extraction, chromatography, detection and estimation of elements, empirical formula calculations
2. Some basic principles of organic chemistry: hybridisation, functional groups, nomenclature, isomerism, bond fission, carbocations, carbanions and free radicals, electrophiles and nucleophiles, inductive and electromeric effects, delocalisation of electrons and hyperconjugation
3. Hydrocarbons: alkanes and conformations, alkenes with geometric isomerism, Markovnikov addition and peroxide effect, ozonolysis, alkynes and their acidity, benzene and electrophilic substitution with directive influence
4. Organic compounds containing halogens: nature of the carbon halogen bond, substitution mechanisms, uses and environmental effects of chloroform, iodoform, freons and DDT
5. Organic compounds containing oxygen: alcohols, phenols and ethers; aldehydes and ketones with nucleophilic addition and their key named reactions; carboxylic acids and their acidity
6. Organic compounds containing nitrogen: amines, their basic character and identification, and diazonium salts in synthesis
7. Biomolecules: carbohydrates, proteins and enzymes, vitamins, nucleic acids, and hormones at a general level
8. Principles related to practical chemistry: tests for functional groups, preparation of compounds such as Mohr's salt, potash alum, acetanilide and iodoform, titrations with potassium permanganate, salt analysis for common cations and anions, and experiments on enthalpy of solution, enthalpy of neutralisation, sols and the kinetics of iodide with hydrogen peroxide

Unit 20 is the one many students skip because it looks like lab work. In practice it is a short list of reactions and colour tests, and it is easy to revise in two or three evenings.

Chapters removed from the chemistry syllabus for NEET

When NMC revised the syllabus, several chapters that older students remember were taken out. Do not spend time on them unless they reappear in a later notice.

• States of matter and the solid state
• Surface chemistry
• Hydrogen and the s block elements as separate units
• Metallurgy, the old chapter on extracting and isolating metals
• Environmental chemistry
• Polymers
• The chapter on chemicals in medicine, food and cleaning agents

Turning the syllabus into marks

Most aspirants find inorganic the fastest to secure, physical the most practice heavy and organic the most varied. A balanced plan gives each block its own daily slot instead of finishing one block and forgetting it.

• Physical: 15 to 20 numericals a day across mole concept, equilibrium, electrochemistry, kinetics and thermodynamics.
• Inorganic: one NCERT chapter read line by line each week, with a single sheet of exceptions and colours.
• Organic: a reaction map for each functional group, revised every Sunday, plus mechanism questions on carbocation stability and named reactions.

Books and how this connects to other pages

Every unit starts from the NCERT class 11 and 12 chemistry books, and for inorganic they are almost the whole story. Add a standard book of numericals for physical chemistry and solve your board practical manual for Unit 20. The chemistry units overlap heavily with the CBSE class 11 chemistry and class 12 chemistry board lists, so board study counts double.

For the full exam picture, read the main NEET syllabus page, then the companion NEET physics syllabus and NEET biology syllabus. Past papers on the NEET previous papers page show how these units are actually asked.