NEET 2020 OMR sheets mismatched with others, allege students: Here's how you can challenge the NTA and get your NEET score

On October 5, four weeks after it held The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) for medical aspirants across the country, the National Testing Agency published the students' OMR answer sheets online. Deepak Soni tells us how his daughter rushed to switch on the computer and download hers. Little did she know that she was in for a huge shock. The NTA had only uploaded her first and last sheets correctly and all the other sheets uploaded under her name, allegedly belonged to another candidate.

"She had been preparing for NEET for the past two years and was quite happy with the paper this time. She was sure about scoring more than 600 marks," alleges Deepak. "However, most of the answers are marked wrong in the OMR sheet uploaded on the website. Going by this, she will only score somewhere around 100 marks," he says. Even though the student wrote an email to the NTA informing them of the error, she is yet to get a response.

"She is quite sad. She hasn't eaten anything since then. She had worked really hard," says the father. "We do not know what to do now," he says, from his house in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar. Many other students and their parents have also highlighted similar issues on social media platforms. "Seven of my answers were uploaded incorrectly on the website," says a student from Maharashtra, who attempted NEET for the third consecutive time.

At the same time, another Twitter user pointed out that her niece, who has expected a score of more than 700, had her OMR sheet exchanged with another student. According to the OMR sheet uploaded on the website, she now scores 0.


Challenge ahead

Apart from writing to the NTA, the NEET aspirant from Maharashtra also challenged the manipulated questions by paying a sum of Rs 1,000 per question. "I ended up paying Rs 7,000. I was expecting a score of more than 500. I can't afford to lose it," he says. At the same time, this doesn't look like a feasible option for Deepak, whose daughter has to challenge more than 20 questions. Students can send challenges to the NTA until 8 PM on Wednesday.

What the NTA says

Even though the NTA is yet to release an official statement on this issue, a few weeks ago, a few students had raised concerns over people who claim to be NTA officials offering to manipulate their OMR sheets for a sum. At the same time, the agency clarified that it does not have access to students' details and that its officials are not involved in the act.

Steps to challenge NEET Answer key 2020

— Visit the official NTA website nta.nic.in

— Go to Candidate Login and enter NEET Registration Number and Password

— Now click on the ‘Answer Key Challenge’ button and select the answer booklet code

— Select the question you want to challenge and then click on the submit button

— Select your answer and give your comments or justifications to support your answer

— Click on ‘Confirm’ button and pay the required fee for challenging the answer key

— Lastly, take the printout of Confirmation Slip that will show details of the answer key that you have challenged