The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) for admissions into MBBS and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) courses was conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) across the country on Sunday. Most of the candidates, who appeared for NEET with whom Express interacted, said the question paper was easier than last year exam. However, some of them found Physics comparatively tough than Botany, Zoology and Chemistry.
P Tharun Kumar, a student, said, “Overall, the paper was easy. Most of the questions were from NCERT. However, when compared to other sections, physics had some tough and lengthy questions.”
In a media release, Rajshekhar Ratrey, VP Educational Content of a personalised learning app said, “In terms of difficulty level, NEET 2018 was slightly easier than previous years. Most questions were not time consuming. There were similarities between the weightage of marks in this paper and the 12th standard syllabus.”
“Physics was the toughest amongst the three. However, this section was lengthy. There were 24 questions from Class 12 syllabus and 21 questions from Class 11 syllabus. There were many calculation-based questions, Ratrey said. He also said that Biology (Botany and Zoology) was the easiest as it had very few application-based questions and most of them were concept-based questions, directly from the NCERT.
This year 13,26,725 students registered for the exam, that was conducted at 2,255 centres across 136 cities. In Telangana, 50,856 students gave the exam in 81 centres. With the jump in the number of candidates who applied for NEET this year and the question paper also turning out to be easier than expected, the cut-off marks might increase this year when compared to last year.
Prof Uday Nath Mishra, Chief Academic Officer of an aptitude-based training initiative, said the minimum marks expected to qualify for NEET would be around 135+-5. However, students opting for government colleges would require 510+-5. Meanwhile, all NEET examination centres in the city were witness to bizarre scenes like that of girls removing their earrings, nose rings, necklaces and any metal accessories they had on them before entering the exam centre.
It was last year that the CBSE had come out with a list of barred items which includes ‘any metallic item’ and a dress code which included “light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons, brooch/badge, flowers etc” and “slippers, sandals with low heels and not the shoes”, that students have to adhere to if they want to give the exam to pursue their ambition of entering the noble medical profession.
The students also felt the process of checking biometric finger prints should be done before the exam begins because they reach almost two hours before exam. However, at some centres, the staff began taking biometric finger prints once the exam began, wasting a good 10 to 15 minutes of their time.
“We reached the centre early. All students will be available in their respective centres 9:30 am maximum. The exam starts at 10 am. Why can’t the invigilators finish the work of taking biometric attendance before the exam starts. Once the exam starts, every second is valuable and we are under pressure. While giving the exam we are forced to give biometric attendance and formalities like writing our booklet number which disturbs our focus,” a student told Express.
