It seems as if the fight to get the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) exam postponed has fizzled out. With just ten days to go for the exam, which is scheduled for July 17, yesterday a few students declared they will go on a hunger strike if their demands were not heard by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), or the Ministry of Education.
However, student activist Pawan Bhadana, who was mobilising protests by the NEET aspirants, met officials at the PMO, and subsequently at the Education Ministry. "We were told that they do not wish to delay the academic year anymore, since it has already been pushed by the COVID-19 pandemic," says Bhadana, who says he also spoke with Devendra Kumar Sharma, Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Education.
Neither Bhadana nor the NEET aspirants Edexlive reached out to today are expecting the exam to be postponed anymore. "I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I am directing all my energy and focus towards preparing for the exam. I do not want to comment on the matter now," says an aspirant who wishes to remain anonymous.
"We are disappointed because we were being asked to revise a vast syllabus, consisting of almost 90 chapters in about a month's time. The NEET UG exam usually happens alongside the JEE Advanced exam. This year, they are conducting it with the JEE Mains exam. It's already too late for any postponement now. It is the decision of the authorities, and students have little say in the matter," says Ahwan Rath, a student based out of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, who will attempt the NEET UG exam for the first time.
Around 18 lakh students have registered to write the exam this year, which will be conducted by the National Testing Agency. The exam will be conducted in more than 500 cities.
The preparation for the exam this year was marred by repeated attempts from the students to get it postponed, since they claimed they had very little time to prepare. They also cited the fact that it was in the middle of a packed examination schedule in July, which will also see the students write the EAMCET exam in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the JEE Main Session Two, and the Common Universities Entrance Test (CUET), along with the NEET UG exam.
"With little time left, the strategy that I have turned to is to prioritise chapters with higher weightage as per past papers. For example, the Kinematics chapter in Physics usually comprises three to four questions in the exam each year. The same goes for Organic Chemistry, from where we expect to get more than 10 questions," says Ahwan.
The admit cards for NEET UG 2022 are expected to be released on the official website around July 10, according to reports.
