NEET UG · Physics · Class 12

Electromagnetic Waves: NEET previous year questions

18 questions in ten years of NEET, asked in 10 of 10 years. Here is what this chapter tests and how.

Asked in 10 years: 18; 10 of 10 papers
10-year average: 1.7; a paper · 1.9 since 2024 +0.3
Typical range: 1–2; questions a paper; fewest 1, most 2
Weighted estimate: 1.9; model, recent papers count more · about 8 marks

Typical range (fact)
10-year average (fact)
Weighted estimate (model)

Typical range: questions per paper in the middle eight of the ten papers, leaving out the single highest and lowest year (about the 10th to 90th percentile), each paper scaled to 180 questions. The ten-year average and the range are historical fact. The weighted estimate is a model: each paper's share, with recent papers counting more (half-life three years), and dropped syllabus removed. It is a guide to effort, not a forecast.

What to do

How to spend time on Electromagnetic Waves

Priority

Should do

Among the chapters that took NEET from half to 80% of its questions. How bands are set

Past questions: 18in 10 of 10 papers
Study plan gives it: 13 hover 12 months; 10 h over 6

Study this chapter →Practise →

Ideas asked most often

Displacement Current5×
Transverse Nature and E x B Direction3×
Speed of EM Waves2×
Energy Density of EM Waves2×
Relation E0 = cB02×

Questions per year

Kind of question

SHARE OF 10 YEARS

Calculation33%
Concept28%
Recall17%
Application11%
Match the lists11%

Most common asks: numerical (4); direction of b field in em wave (1); ratio of electric and magnetic contributions in em wave (1).

Profile

This chapter in numbers

Where it ranks, how steady it is, and what it costs to study.

Rank, all NEET chapters: #48; of 80 by weighted estimate
Rank in Physics: #10; of 27 chapters
Share of the paper: 1.0%; ten-year average
Busiest year: 2019; 2 questions
Year to year: Steady; varies by about 0.4 questions
Long-run direction: +0.09; questions per paper, per year
Easy questions: 61%; 31% of ideas rated hard
With a figure: 6%; graph, diagram or structure
Study time: 13 h; 10 h on a 6-month plan
Marks per study hour: 0.62; #24 of 80 chapters
Foundation for others: 50%; of its ideas are used in other chapters

Difficulty, year by year

Each question rated easy, medium or hard against NCERT.

20171
20181
20192
20202
20212
20222
20232
20242
20252
20262

Easy
Medium
Hard

What it asks you to do

SHARE OF QUESTIONS

Recall28%
Concept28%
Calculation22%
Application11%
Multi-step11%

Topics

What repeats, topic by topic

Questions per topic in each year's paper. Topics that come every year are worth learning first.

Electromagnetic Waves · Every year18
1122222222

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Topic	2017	’18	2019	’20	2021	’22	2023	’24	2025	’26	Total
Electromagnetic WavesEvery year	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	18

02+questions in that year’s paper

Electromagnetic Waves
Expect a short numerical problem (one or two formula steps, four numeric options) about Electromagnetic Waves; a conceptual single-answer item (reasoning rather than recall) is the next most likely shape. Past framings centre on: numerical; direction of b field in em wave.

Drill down

Topic, idea, question

Open a topic to see every idea NEET tested inside it, then open an idea to read the questions. Each row shows its ten papers.

topicAskedShareYears’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Open18 · 100%100%10/1022222222
8 ideas inside
- Repeated5 · 28%28%5/10
- Repeated3 · 17%17%3/10
- Repeated2 · 11%11%2/10
- Repeated2 · 11%11%2/10
- Repeated2 · 11%11%2/10
- Repeated2 · 11%11%2/10
- 1 · 6%6%1/10
- 1 · 6%6%1/10

Squares are the ten papers, 2017 to 2026; darker means more questions. Share is of the level above.

Ideas

The exact ideas NEET has asked

Inside the topics, 8 different ideas were tested. These came more than once, or are new since 2024.

Displacement Current5×
effect of frequency on capacitor reactance and displacement current
Transverse Nature and E x B Direction3×
direction of b field in em wave
Speed of EM Waves2×
formula for speed of light in medium
Energy Density of EM Waves2×
ratio of electric and magnetic contributions in em wave
Relation E0 = cB02×
numerical
Order of the Electromagnetic Spectrum2×
match list on em wave wavelengths
Production and Uses of EM BandsNew1×
match list on em spectrum applications

Idea	Times	Usually asked as
Displacement Currenteffect of frequency on capacitor reactance and displacement current	5	One-line MCQ
Transverse Nature and E x B Directiondirection of b field in em wave	3	One-line MCQ
Speed of EM Wavesformula for speed of light in medium	2	One-line MCQ
Energy Density of EM Wavesratio of electric and magnetic contributions in em wave	2	One-line MCQ
Relation E0 = cB0numerical	2	Numerical
Order of the Electromagnetic Spectrummatch list on em wave wavelengths	2	Match the lists
Production and Uses of EM Bandsmatch list on em spectrum applications	1	Match the listsNew

Every question

Electromagnetic Waves questions, year by year

The opening words of each question as it appeared in the official paper.

NEET 20262 questions

Q38An electromagnetic wave travelling in a lossless dielectric medium having a dielectric constant, $\epsilon_r=9$ , has the electric field,…One-line MCQ
Q43The following table presents the part of the electromagnetic spectrum and their corresponding major applications. Part of the…Match the lists · figure

NEET 20252 questions

Q9The electric field in a plane electromagnetic wave is given by $E_z = 60\cos(5x + 1.5\times10^9 t)$ V/m. Then expression for the…One-line MCQ
Q26A parallel plate capacitor made of circular plates is being charged such that the surface charge density on its plates is increasing at a…One-line MCQ

NEET 20242 questions

Q43A parallel plate capacitor is charged by connecting it to a battery through a resistor. If I is the current in the circuit, then in the…One-line MCQ
Q46The property which is not of an electromagnetic wave travelling in free space is that :One-line MCQ

NEET 20232 questions

Q6In a plane electromagnetic wave travelling in free space, the electric field component oscillates sinusoidally at a frequency of…Numerical
Q35An ac source is connected to a capacitor C. Due to decrease in its operating frequency :One-line MCQ

NEET 20222 questions

Q11When light propagates through a material medium of relative permittivity $\epsilon_r$ and relative permeability $\mu_r$ , the velocity of…One-line MCQ
Q32Match List - I with List - II : List - I (Electromagnetic waves) | List - II (Wavelength) (a) AM radio waves | (i) $10^{-10}$ m (b)…Match the lists

NEET 20212 questions

Q9A capacitor of capacitance 'C', is connected across an ac source of voltage V, given by $V = V_0 \sin\omega t$ The displacement current…One-line MCQ
Q12For a plane electromagnetic wave propagating in $x$ -direction, which one of the following combination gives the correct possible…One-line MCQ

NEET 20202 questions

Q137The ratio of contributions made by the electric field and magnetic field components to the intensity of an electromagnetic wave is : (c =…One-line MCQ
Q150Light with an average flux of 20 W/cm $^2$ falls on a non-reflecting surface at normal incidence having surface area 20 cm $^2$ . The energy…Numerical

NEET 20192 questions

Q8Which colour of the light has the longest wavelength ?One-line MCQ
Q43A parallel plate capacitor of capacitance 20 μF is being charged by a voltage source whose potential is changing at the rate of 3 V/s. The…Numerical

NEET 20181 question

Q18An em wave is propagating in a medium with a velocity $\vec{V} = V\hat{i}$ . The instantaneous oscillating electric field of this em wave…One-line MCQ

NEET 20171 question

Q31In an electromagnetic wave in free space the root mean square value of the electric field is $E_{rms}$ = 6 V/m. The peak value of the…Numerical

Questions from the official NEET UG papers published by NTA (CBSE before 2019). Topic and idea tags, counts and notes are Lumi’s.

More from Electromagnetism

All NEET chapters NEET Physics analysis Study plan