One of the most striking discussions that took place at the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Exam for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) Admissions, 2024 hearing today, October 25, before the hearing was deferred, was on the answer keys of the examination.
The counsel for the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), the body responsible for the conduct of NEET-PG, told the Supreme Court bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that NBE will exhaust all the questions for NEET-PG in three years if they release answer keys for the exam every year.
Further, the counsel told the bench that NEET PG is a “super speciality postgraduate exam,” and contains “appropriately difficult questions.”
These statements were made after Senior Advocate Vibha Makhija, who was appearing for the petitioners, pointed out various transparency issues including the non-release of answer keys, and JB Pardiwala enquired the NBE about the latter.
Right before the hearing was deferred for a “non-miscellaneous” date, Advocate Tanvi Dubey, also appearing on behalf of the petitioners said that a response to the NBE’s claims had already been submitted on record by her.
Speaking to EdexLive, the advocate says, “The syllabus of NEET PG has 19 subjects in total, and it is impossible for the NBEMS to run out of difficult questions in three years if they were to release answer keys. The argument simply doesn’t stand.”
She further adds that medicine as a subject is constantly evolving with time — and so are the subjects being taught in it.
“For example, medical students are being taught about COVID-19 and tested about it too. With time, there will be new developments in medicine, and students are expected to be abreast of them. The questions asked in these exams must also reflect the new developments in medicine,” the advocate explains.
Experts also pointed out that exams like the Joint Entrance Examination, which have a smaller syllabus, manage to not exhaust their questions even after releasing answer keys every year.
Calling the NBE’s claims of not being able to release the answer keys owing to the exam’s difficulty as “bogus”, NEET counsellor and Founder of Career Xpert Gaurav Tyagi says, “Every year, coaching institutes prepare mock tests and answer keys for NEET PG, which have lakhs of questions, and match the difficulty level of the actual exam. It is unbelievable that NBE cannot do the same.”
He further alleges that the NBE is evading the responsibility of releasing the answer keys as there could be contradictory answers to a few questions, and the NBE does not want to tackle such a situation.
The Supreme Court was supposed to hear a petition seeking direction to the NBE to issue the answer keys, as well as an update on the counselling dates. The petitioners also alleged a lack of transparency in the conduct of NEET PG.
The next hearing is scheduled for November 19.