Home › NEET PG preparation › Pathology
Pathology is taught in second year and comes back in every NEET PG paper, often hidden inside a Medicine or OBG case. This page gathers what recent toppers and students say about the teachers, notes and question banks they used, and how to handle the subject from 2nd year to a drop year.
2026 estimates scaled to the 180-question paper put Pathology at roughly 11 to 18 of the 180 questions (Careers360 and ReflexPrep, August 2026). These figures are built from candidates' recall of past papers, so read them as ranges. The constant is that Pathology is a high-weightage subject in every recent paper.
The style has shifted towards concepts. Marrow's analysis of NEET PG 2025, quoted by Careers360, found the Pathology questions more conceptual and fact-based, with less emphasis on images than earlier years. In 2026, PW's paper analysis noted Pathology and Microbiology appearing through integrated questions: a Pathology idea tucked inside a Medicine case, so you need the mechanism as well as the fact.
Images have not gone away. Histopathology slides, peripheral smears and gross specimens are the usual formats, and histopathology is among the most common image types across the whole paper. If a Pathology question shows a picture, it is usually one of these three.
This is the year Pathology is taught, with Microbiology and Pharmacology. Read Robbins Basic Pathology (or Harsh Mohan) for the university exam and watch one platform's main Pathology videos alongside college lectures. Solve the Qbank for each chapter in the same week. Dr Sonali (AIR 6, NEET PG 2024) started in 2nd year and had watched almost every video before internship.
No new Pathology this year, but don't let it go cold. Do 20–30 Pathology MCQs a week and revise one system at a time. If you passed 2nd year by reading only previous university questions, watch the main Pathology videos once now; it is one of the most common questions 3rd-year students ask under YouTube strategy videos.
Clinical subjects reuse Pathology constantly: anaemias and leukaemias in Medicine, glomerulonephritis in nephrology, tumour markers in Surgery and OBG. Revise the Pathology chapter just before its Medicine chapter. Start Grand Tests if you can; Dr Vaibhav Garg (AIR 1, NEET PG 2024) began them at the start of final year.
DBMCI's internship guide lists Pathology among the high-yield subjects to cover first and suggests 4–6 study hours a day. Use rapid-revision videos at 1.5x with your annotated notes, then previous-year questions topic by topic. Pathology suits short gaps between duties because it is fact-dense.
PrepLadder's 12-month plan gives Pathology 25–30 days in the first two months; Cerebellum's 2-month crash plan gives it 3–4 days. Take it early because every clinical subject leans on it, then revise it in every cycle. Netresh Sharma (INI-CET AIR 1) built his whole year on two textbook readings plus daily timed questions.
The teacher named most for Pathology in 2025–26 student material is Dr Preeti Sharma of PrepLadder. Two NEET PG 2025 rank-holders featured by PrepLadder, Dr Sahed (AIR 13) and Dr Sakshi (AIR 21), named her for Pathology and Microbiology, and Dr Sakshi credited her mnemonics. INI-CET AIR 155 Dr Sanika Mahar used her Pathology rapid-revision videos with BTR. She is also the name tied to Pathology most often in the 3,277 YouTube comments we read under NEET PG strategy and resource videos.
Toppers who leaned on textbooks keep naming Robbins. Dr Netresh Sharma (INI-CET AIR 1, November 2024) never left standard textbooks, and Dr Shashwat (INI-CET AIR 2, May 2025) also studied from Robbins. For students who like a review book, Careers360's 2026 book list names Review of Pathology and Genetics by Sparsh Gupta and Devesh Mishra; Dr Sparsh Gupta now teaches Pathology on Cerebellum.
Credited Dr Preeti Sharma's mnemonics with making Pathology and Microbiology stick.
Used Dr Preeti Sharma's rapid-revision videos plus BTR for Pathology; her tip is to pick one primary source rather than finish every resource.
“Everyone should follow Robbins.”
| Platform | Pathology teacher | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Marrow | Dr Ila Jain Khandelwal | Edition 8.5 “Clinical Edge” |
| PrepLadder | Dr Preeti Sharma | Version XI |
| Cerebellum | Dr Sparsh Gupta | Mission 4.0 |
| DBMCI One | Dr Praveen Kumar Gupta | Live ’27 |
| DocTutorials | Dr Vandana Puri | Edition 6 |
| PW MedEd | Dr Ranjith AR | One Plan |
Rosters as listed on each platform's own 2026 course pages (read 2 Oct 2026). Teachers do change between editions, so check the course page before you buy.
Mixing is normal. Many students keep one platform for the Qbank and Grand Tests and borrow a single subject's lectures from another; for Pathology the usual borrow is Dr Preeti Sharma's rapid revision. One intern who builds study decks from coaching notes used Marrow's main Pathology notes (Edition 8) instead. The right choice is the course you will finish and then revise three or four times. Our platform comparison covers each course in detail.
Use the Qbank to learn, not only to test. Dr Monish (AIR 1, NEET PG 2026) added every MCQ mistake and new fact to his notes and re-read the topic instead of stopping at the explanation. Do the previous-year questions topic by topic after each chapter, then as one subject set before a Grand Test. Build custom modules tagged image-based and clinical; that is how the 2026 AIR 1 filtered his practice.
Read histopathology slides at low power first (the architecture), then at high power (the cells). Learn peripheral-smear patterns for the anaemias and leukaemias, and look at gross specimens of the common tumours. Common errors are over-reading a clear slide, hunting for a rare finding, and ignoring the clinical stem.
| Area | What to know |
|---|---|
| Neoplasia | Tumour markers and their cancers, grading versus staging, paraneoplastic syndromes, IHC markers (CD20, CD3, HER2, S-100, desmin, vimentin, cytokeratin). PrepLadder calls it the single highest-yield chapter. |
| Haematopathology | Anaemias (RDW to separate iron deficiency from thalassaemia trait), ALL versus AML, Auer rods, smudge cells, the Philadelphia chromosome, bleeding and coagulation disorders, bone marrow in pancytopenia. AML-M3 with t(15;17) PML-RARA appeared in 2025 recall. |
| Lymphomas | CD markers, Hodgkin versus non-Hodgkin, translocations such as t(14;18) in follicular lymphoma. |
| Renal pathology | Nephrotic versus nephritic syndrome, glomerulonephritis histopathology, minimal change disease versus IgA nephropathy. |
| General pathology | Cell injury and adaptation, necrosis versus apoptosis, types of inflammation and repair, causes of granulomatous inflammation, amyloidosis with Congo red apple-green birefringence. |
| Immunopathology | Hypersensitivity types and autoantibodies; antimitochondrial antibody in primary biliary cholangitis was a 2025 recall question. |
| Paediatric pathology and genetics | About 2–3 questions in PrepLadder's estimate. The five core storage diseases (Gaucher, Niemann-Pick, Tay-Sachs, Fabry, Hunter/Hurler) and the common syndromes are enough. |
Compiled from PrepLadder's 2026 high-yield and most-repeated topic lists and 2025 paper recalls.
Cell injury, inflammation, haemodynamics, immunity, neoplasia and genetics. Watch at 1.5x, annotate one set of notes, and finish that chapter's Qbank the same day.
Haematology first (anaemias, leukaemias, lymphomas, bleeding disorders), then renal, CVS, respiratory, GIT and liver, CNS, endocrine, breast and bone. Pair each system with its Medicine chapter if you can.
One sitting each for smears, histopathology slides and gross specimens, then the Pathology previous-year questions topic by topic.
Write the short notebook of markers, translocations, bodies, inclusions and “most common” facts. This is what you will revise in the last month.
During internship, aim for 45–60 minutes of Pathology on duty days: one rapid-revision chapter and 20 questions. Take a full Pathology subject test every three to four weeks. Grand Tests are where you find out whether it has stuck.
Recall-based 2026 estimates scaled to the 180-question paper put it at about 11–18 of the 180 questions (Careers360 and ReflexPrep, August 2026). Many Medicine and OBG questions also test Pathology concepts, so its real reach is wider than its own count.
In 2025–26, students and toppers most often name Dr Preeti Sharma (PrepLadder), especially her rapid-revision videos and mnemonics. The other 2026 courses are taught by Dr Ila Jain Khandelwal (Marrow), Dr Sparsh Gupta (Cerebellum), Dr Praveen Kumar Gupta (DBMCI One), Dr Vandana Puri (DocTutorials) and Dr Ranjith AR (PW MedEd). Pick the one you will finish and revise.
For the 2nd-year university exam, Robbins Basic Pathology (or Harsh Mohan) is the standard. For NEET PG, most toppers work from platform notes and the Qbank, but INI-CET toppers Dr Netresh Sharma and Dr Shashwat kept Robbins as their base. Use it to look things up and understand them, not to re-read cover to cover.
Watch one platform's main Pathology videos once with their notes, then move to rapid revision and the Qbank. Finish this before final year, because final-year Medicine assumes it. See the 3rd-year guide.
Read histopathology slides at low power first and then high power, learn smear patterns for the anaemias and leukaemias, and review gross specimens. Practise with Qbank modules tagged image-based, as the 2026 AIR 1 did.
Print the image pages (slides, smears and gross specimens) in colour so the features stay clear, and text-heavy chapters in black and white. Bind Pathology as its own volume so it is light enough to carry to postings. Send your PDF on WhatsApp for a quote.
Send your Pathology PDF on WhatsApp: Marrow, PrepLadder, Cerebellum, DBMCI, BTR or your own handwritten notes. We print image pages in colour, bind Pathology as its own volume and deliver anywhere in India.
Order on WhatsAppTopper interviews, student resource videos and comments, and 2025–26 exam analyses, read in October 2026.