 "Inflated marks, paper leak and more: The NEET-UG results row")
The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of the National Eligibility-sum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2024, an entrance exam into medical, dental, and AYUSH courses in government and private colleges, earlier this week.
However, the results have been marred by allegations of irregularities and paper leaks following the inflated marks of about 67 medical aspirants.
The NTA denied any irregularities or any paper leaks by citing changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres as some of the reasons for the inflated marks.
Let’s take a closer look.
The controversy
The results, announced on Wednesday, have drawn massive criticism as a large number of candidates bagged the top rank, and got the perfect score of 720/720.
Some candidates even got 718 or 719, which others claim were impossible to get in the +4 -1 exam scheme.
About 67 candidates came first, of which six were from the same exam centre in Haryana, scoring a percentile of 99.997129, as per Mint.
The average mark out of 720 qualified candidates is 323.55 for the 2024 exam.
The entrance exam was conducted on 5 May at 4,750 centres in 571 cities including 14 cities abroad, as per PTI.
The latest available data suggests there are a total of 1,08,940 MBBS seats in more than 700 medical colleges across the country.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAccording to experts, the mark inflation in the NEET UG 2024 result is expected to make securing a spot in medical school this year more difficult.
Medical aspiring students have turned to online platforms to demand the cancellation of the results and a re-examination. In Bhopal, Varanasi and Kanpur, students have started protesting against the NTA over the alleged irregularities on Saturday.
According to experts, the mark inflation in NEET UG 2024 results is expected to make securing a spot in medical schools this year more difficult.
The Indian Express reported at least two petitions against the results have been filed in two High Courts.
A petition calling for a retake of the exam saying the question paper had been leaked was filed with the Supreme Court on 1 June.
After considering a similar plea last month, the apex court declined to stay the findings’ publication.
Additionally, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called for action against alleged irregularities in the NEET medical entrance exams.
“First, the NEET exam paper was leaked, and now students are alleging that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised over six students from the same coaching centre getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to light. On the other hand, there are reports of many children committing suicide across the country after the results were announced. This is very sad and shocking," she wrote in Hindi on X.
NTA clarification
The NTA has denied any irregularities in the exam.
Detailing the reason behind the inflation of marks, the agency said it received representations raising concerns about the loss of time during the conduct of the examination.
“The normalisation formula, which has been devised and adopted by Supreme Court, vide its Judgment dated 13.06.2018, was implemented to address the loss of time faced by the candidates of NEET (UG) 2024,” the NTA said in a statement, “The loss of examination time was ascertained, and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. So, their marks can be 718 or 719 also.”
Speaking about the allegations of unclear implementation of grace marks, a senior NTA official told PTI that the question paper was prepared using a new NCERT textbook. However, some students had old NCERT textbooks.
An NTA official told the news agency, “We received a representation on this issue as well, due to which NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Because of this reason, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers.”
It further noted that around 1,563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time, and the revised marks of such candidates vary from 20 to 720 marks. Amongst these, the scores of the two candidates also happen to be 718 and 719 marks, respectively, due to compensatory marks.
The NTA also said the reports claiming question paper leak in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG are “completely baseless and without any ground”, and every question paper has been accounted for.
NTA director general Subodh Kumar on Saturday reiterated that there was no paper leak. He said that authorities had analysed things and concluded that the issue was limited to just six exam centres, as per India Today.
“We have analysed all the things transparently and declared the results,” Kumar said, adding, “Out of 4,750 exam centres, the problem was limited to six centres, and out of 24 lakh candidates, only 1,600 candidates were affected. The integrity of this exam throughout the country was not compromised. We analysed our system and there was no paper leak.”
“The candidates alleged that they got less time. We have replied in the High Court that we have formed a grievance addressal committee of experts, which would look into the details of time lost, including the reports from the centre, CCTV footage,” he added.
Kumar said the compensation with grace marks in the entrance exam has not affected the qualifying criteria, and that the panel was reviewing the issue of grace marks and would submit its report within a week.
The scores calculation
The marks in the exam are given based on the +4 -1 scheme.
For every right response, four marks will be given; for every incorrect response, one mark will be deducted. Questions left unanswered will not be marked.
So for 180 multiple choice questions, the total NEET marks is 720.
I.e. A student’s NEET score = 4 x the number of correct responses - 1 x the number of incorrect responses
After the exam, students can compare their responses to the Answer Key provided by the NTA.
NEET percentile = (your NEET score / topper’s score) x 100
With inputs from PTI
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