Loading...
Loading...
NTA removed six Biology chapters from the NEET syllabus. Three of them — Transport in Plants, Mineral Nutrition, Digestion and Absorption — sit squarely inside the biology olympiad’s physiology areas and turn up in NSEB, INBO and IBO papers. A chapter-by-chapter verdict for students preparing for both.
Remember these points for your Olympiad preparation
Short answer: NTA's rationalised NEET syllabus removed six Biology chapters — Transport in Plants, Mineral Nutrition and Digestion and Absorption from Class 11; Reproduction in Organisms, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production and Environmental Issues from Class 12. The biology olympiad did not follow. NSEB, INBO and the IBO are set against the seven IBO subject areas, and plant transport, mineral nutrition and digestion sit inside "plant anatomy and physiology" and "animal anatomy and physiology", which together are 40% of the paper. So a student preparing for NEET alone can drop all six; a student preparing for NEET and NSEB on 22 November should keep three, skim two and drop one. Here is the verdict chapter by chapter, and where to read them now that NCERT no longer prints them.
This is a companion to NEET vs NSEB, chapter by chapter. The removed-chapter list follows NTA's syllabus as published for the 2024 exam onwards; some sources describe parts of it as sub-topic rather than whole-chapter removals — check the current NEET syllabus bulletin before planning. The olympiad side has not moved at all.
| Removed from NEET | Class | Olympiad area it lives in | Still examined? | Verdict for a NEET + NSEB student |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transport in Plants | 11 | Plant anatomy & physiology (~15%) | Yes — regularly. Water potential, xylem tension, phloem loading, stomatal mechanism | Keep. The single most-asked removed chapter; water-potential calculations are an NSEB staple |
| Mineral Nutrition | 11 | Plant anatomy & physiology | Yes — occasionally. Essential elements, deficiency symptoms, nitrogen fixation and the nodule | Keep, lightly. Two evenings; the nitrogen-fixation biochemistry is the part that recurs |
| Digestion and Absorption | 11 | Animal anatomy & physiology (~25%) | Yes — regularly. Enzymes by site and substrate, absorption mechanisms, hormonal control of secretion | Keep. Comparative digestion (ruminants, insects) is the olympiad twist; Campbell covers it |
| Reproduction in Organisms | 12 | Animal and plant physiology; biosystematics | Partly — as comparative reproduction across groups, not as the NCERT chapter | Skim. One reading of asexual vs sexual strategies and life cycles; the rest is covered by the Kingdom chapters |
| Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production | 12 | — (applied content) | Rarely | Drop unless everything else is done |
| Environmental Issues | 12 | Ecology (~10%) | Partly — pollution, ozone, biomagnification appear as ecology, not as a chapter | Skim as ecology: read the ecosystem and nutrient-cycle material and let the environmental examples come with it |
NEET's syllabus is a list of NCERT chapters, so when NCERT rationalised the textbooks in 2023 and NTA followed, chapters could disappear. The olympiad's syllabus is not a chapter list. IAPT writes NSEB against the IBO subject areas on an NCERT base — as our NSEB syllabus page explains, IAPT publishes no separate NSEB weightings — and HBCSE sets INBO against the same areas at Campbell depth. "Plant anatomy and physiology" has always included transport and nutrition; "animal anatomy and physiology" has always included digestion. Nothing in the olympiad changed when NTA's list did.
The practical consequence is a small asymmetry that catches dual-track students every year: the chapter is gone from the book on their desk but not from the paper in November.
The rationalised NCERT no longer prints these chapters. Three options, in order of usefulness for an olympiad student:
Preparing for USABO, IBO or NSEB?
Free to try · replies within a few hours on WhatsApp
For the three "keep" chapters: about ten hours in total, in October, spread as Transport in Plants (4 h, with worked water-potential problems), Digestion and Absorption (4 h, with the comparative examples), Mineral Nutrition (2 h). Slot them into the eight-week NSEB plan in the plant- and animal-physiology weeks rather than as a separate block, so they are revised with the chapters that surround them. Skim chapters get one evening each. The dropped chapter gets nothing.
None of this touches NEET revision: the removed chapters do not appear in NEET, and the ten hours come out of olympiad time, not NCERT time.
INBO and IBO examine these areas harder still — plant transport as experimental data, digestion as comparative physiology across taxa — so a student who clears NSEB should treat the three "keep" chapters as Campbell reading for INBO, not as a NEET leftover. The NEET vs INBO post has the December plan.
Six, from the 2024 syllabus onwards: Transport in Plants, Mineral Nutrition and Digestion and Absorption (Class 11); Reproduction in Organisms, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production and Environmental Issues (Class 12). Confirm the current list in the NTA bulletin, as some sources describe part of it as sub-topic removal.
Three of them are examined regularly or occasionally: Transport in Plants, Digestion and Absorption and Mineral Nutrition, because NSEB is set against the IBO's plant- and animal-physiology areas, which include them. Two appear only as comparative or ecological content; one rarely appears at all.
Yes. It is the most frequently examined of the removed chapters — water potential, xylem and phloem transport and stomatal control — and the olympiad asks it as calculation and mechanism. Read it from Campbell rather than the old NCERT.
No. They are not in the NEET syllabus and NTA does not examine them. The advice on this page is for students preparing for the olympiad as well.
Campbell Biology is the right source for olympiad purposes — the questions are written at its depth. An older (pre-2023) NCERT edition works for a NEET-style baseline only.
Not if they are kept to the ten hours above in October and read alongside the surrounding physiology chapters. They come out of olympiad time. The failure mode is treating them as NEET revision — they are not.
Tell us your class and whether you are sitting NSEB this November, and we will send the exact chapter order — including which removed chapters to read from which Campbell chapter — in one message.
Related reading: NEET vs NSEB syllabus, chapter by chapter · NEET Biology syllabus 2026 · NSEB syllabus · NSEB preparation strategy · NEET vs INBO
Free problem sets, past-paper walkthroughs, and round-by-round timelines for USABO, IBO, and national olympiads — every week.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We respect your privacy.
Get expert coaching from Olympiad medalists and compete at the international level
Share your thoughts, ask a question, or help another student
USABO is open to students in grades 9-12. Middle schoolers should look at Science Olympiad Division B, which is built for grades 6-9.
Most students work through Campbell over 6-9 months. The Semifinal leans on data interpretation and experimental design, so drill those alongside content.
Registration goes through a school or an approved centre. If your school does not participate, a teacher can register as a new centre with CEE.
Need personalized guidance?