New Delhi, Nov. 17: The country’s first common medical entrance test will be held on May 13, 2012, CBSE announced today, signalling the Centre’s intention to go ahead with the plan despite opposition from some states and private medical colleges.

The CBSE said the three-hour National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test would have a single paper with 180 objective-type questions in physics, chemistry and biology. The questions will have to be answered on a gradable sheet using ball-point pens only.

Each question will carry four marks, will have four options and a single correct answer, the central education board said.

The Medical Council of India had two years ago proposed a single entrance test for around 32,000 undergraduate seats for MBBS in the country.

The MCI has argued that the test would introduce uniform entrance standards and ease the burden on students who have to appear for multiple examinations now.

The MCI has made it clear that the common test will not in any way alter admissions based on reservations, state quotas or private college quotas.

Some states — among them Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — do not want a common medical entrance test.

In Bengal, the government wants the medical entrance papers to be printed in English, Hindi and Bengali but no decision has been made on this yet. Question papers for all-India entrance tests are generally in English and Hindi only.

Last month, an association of private medical colleges also threatened to oppose the plan, citing diversity of school board standards across the country.

But senior medical faculty in some colleges believe their opposition may be driven by concerns that once the common entrance exam is introduced, private unaided colleges may not be able to “sell” seats to undeserving students regardless of their scores in entrance test, as they can do now.