The National Testing Agency (NTA) has announced that a high-level committee will review the concerns raised by 1,600 students who took the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2024 for medical college admissions.
The results for the NEET-UG medical entrance exam were announced on June 4. Following this, numerous aspirants have raised concerns regarding irregularities and are calling for a re-test. The issues raised include allegations of a NEET paper leak in Bihar, claims of undisclosed grace marks, unusually high scores, an unexpected abundance of perfect scores, and excessively high cut-off marks.
During a press briefing, Subodh Kumar Singh, the Director General of the NTA, stated that no paper leak happened this time as “question papers were shared on social media around 4.30 pm, two hours after the exam had started. We denied reports on May 6 that paper has been leaked. Integrity of examination was not compromised at all.”
“This time, only one question had an impact on the students. Considering the multitude of questions prepared, out of 1,563 students who underwent reassessment, 790 students met the qualifying criteria. Overall, 13 lakh students qualified. Those who have compensated with grace marks have not affected the overall percentage of marks.”
Over 23 lakh students appeared for NEET this year. The NTA received 13,373 challenges to the provisional answer key of one question in Physics. “Owing to differences in the old and new editions of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbook, the subject experts held that two options be taken as correct in place of one option for the question,” the NTA has said.
The issue is only of 1,600 students, out of 4,750 centres only six centres have an issue:, Mr. Singh added.
According to Mr. Singh, the new committee under former Chairperson of the UPSC, will look into the issue of compensatory marks, and issues of candidates who have lost their time. The Committee will give recommendation and the NTA will come up with a report in limited time. The counselling and admission process will not be affected, he said.
“We had registered FIRs across the country, we will cooperate with police,” said Mr. Singh.
A petition urging for the re-examination, signed by over 2,000 students, had alleged that there has been an unexpected number of full scores and a very high cut-off. “A total of 67 students scored a perfect 720 out of 720, which is highly questionable and not digestible. This has never happened. Usually, only three to four students score perfect marks,” it said.
On the issue of grace marks, the NTA Director General said “Grace marks formula is based on time loss, based on attempted questions. The maximum was 720, the lowest was -20, it depended on candidates.”
The 1,600 students that have asked for retest and compensation of marks, their issues will be addressed, he added.