COIMBATORE: As many as 5,662 Class 8 students appeared for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam held at 25 school centres in Coimbatore district on Saturday.

Only 168 out of the 5,830 who applied for the exam were absent.

Hema Malini SK Deepak, Under Secretary (NMMSS Division), Ministry of Education, inspected five exam centres including Othakkalmandapam, SRI Municipal School, and Mariammal School, in the district.

Students said most of the questions in the exam were easy.

A Secondary grade teacher from a middle school in Karamadai block who coached students for NMMS told TNIE that questions were easy for the students.

"Out of 180 questions, 20 were from Mathematics, of which 10 were indirect. Students had to think to answer those. In the Science section, most questions were direct from the textbook, so overall, the questions were easy," he said.

He opined that, like last year, the questions were easy and many students may crack the exam.

The NMMS exam is conducted for Class 8 students in government schools. The passing is 36 out of 90 in the SAT and MAT. Those who clear the test will start receiving a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 from classes 9 to 12.