Candidates who appeared for the University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test (UGC - NET) in June 2025 have been claiming that the answers in their response sheets do not match the ones they marked in the exam.
They also allege that the National Testing Agency (NTA), which administers the exam, is providing them with no relief or redressal mechanism through which they can rectify these answers.
The UGC-NET June 2025 session was held from June 25 to 29, and the response sheets were issued on July 5, about 10 days after the exams began.
With these discrepancies and no way to correct them, candidates find themselves distressed and helpless.
A state of self-doubt
Initially, when these candidates checked their response sheets, they were taken aback by the answers attributed to them. Some candidates thought that they had made a mistake in the exam, as indicated in the response sheets.
“For a second, I thought that I marked the wrong option in the exam despite knowing the correct answer, and questioned my performance in the exam,” said Raghav*, a UGC-NET candidate from Odisha.
For Raghav, this is the second attempt at the UGC-NET, after appearing for the exam in December 2024. Having also appeared for various other public exams, such as the Union Public Service Commission Civil Service Exam (UPSC CSE) and banking exams, he told EdexLive that he was experienced enough not to make such rudimentary mistakes.
However, his confusion turned into shock when he saw other candidates reporting the same problem on social media and Telegram groups.
To make matters worse, the questions for which the response sheets had wrong answers marked were simple general knowledge and arithmetic questions. “One of the questions that the response sheet claimed I got wrong was when the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission was conducted,” Raghav revealed.
Attesting to this, Deepanshi, a UGC-NET candidate from Uttar Pradesh, said that those who prepared well for the examination could not have answered such questions incorrectly. “Even a Class 10 student would be able to get the answer right,” she said, irate.
“I began to have serious doubts about my performance in the exam after I looked at the response sheet and thought that there was some kind of mistake,” Deepanshi narrated.
And sure enough, it seems like there was.
No help from the NTA
To make matters worse, when they tried to bring this to the NTA’s notice, they were met with just one response: denial.
“Some of us tried to contact officials to find a solution to our predicament, but the officials denied that anything like this could ever happen,” Raghav alleged.
He added that the official emphasised multiple times during their conversation on the telephone that the UGC-NET was a computer-based exam and that only their responses would be reflected in their response sheets.
“The NTA was not open to the possibility that there could be anything wrong with our response sheets,” Deepanshi said.
When some candidates tried contesting this through email, there was no response from the NTA either. “The NTA officials asked me to explain the issue via an email, and I did in detail. However, they are yet to respond,” Prachi, a UGC-NET candidate from Bihar, told EdexLive.
Candidates see this state of denial and lack of accountability by the NTA as a microcosm of a deeply prevalent malaise within India’s exam system and how the Agency conducts itself.
“It is clear that the NTA has been unable to conduct exams smoothly, especially since last year. While this is worrisome in itself, what’s equally striking is the lack of transparency. We do not know what is happening behind the scenes, as the NTA continues to ignore these discrepancies,” Prachi said.
Incidentally, this is the second instance of candidates’ response sheets in an exam conducted by the NTA allegedly not reflecting their performance. In April, aspirants of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) alleged similar discrepancies in their response sheets, which include missing answers, questions marked as unanswered, and answers being recorded as incorrect when they were actually correct.
In addition, candidates revealed that some of their UGC-NET exam centres also faced technical issues, which delayed their exam considerably. One candidate says that the computers at an exam centre in Rohini, Delhi, simply blacked out for five minutes.
“The NTA must take note of these issues and address them,” Deepanshi says, adding, “They cannot afford to have such serious technical issues while conducting all-India entrance exams. Every year, we hear of such incidents in JEE, NEET, CUET, and even UGC-NET. Why can’t the NTA employ stronger servers and better technical support for these exams?”
Candidates feeling stuck
While the candidates are understandably outraged by the NTA’s attitude, they are also overcome by helplessness, as they have no way to change their response sheets.
“When I looked at my response sheets last Sunday, I was so demoralised that I did not leave my room the whole day. My family tried so hard to lift my spirits, but it was of no use,” Prachi said.
UGC-NET determines candidates’ eligibility for assistant professor posts, PhD admissions and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) awards. With each question carrying 2 marks, candidates are worried about losing these opportunities due to errors in their response sheets.
“I had four questions marked with incorrect responses, which would mean that I would get 8 marks less than I was expecting. Given the competition, I would not be eligible for JRF or PhD without an exceptional score,” Deepanshi lamented.
As PhD admissions are conducted once a year, candidates have to wait until the December session of the UGC-NET to get the score that they desire, further delaying their PhD admissions.
Moreover, since their response sheets serve as final proof of their performance in the exam, candidates have no way to challenge them, leaving them with no choice but to attempt the UGC-NET once again
“Some of us are nearing the age limit, so we are left with fewer chances,” Raghav said, further asking, “But what choice do we have?”
However, a few candidates also expressed concern that something like this might happen again in their next attempt.
“Can the NTA guarantee that our response sheets will reflect our answers accurately in the December session? If not, then how can we be expected to trust them again and appear for the exam?” Prachi asked.
“We’ve already faced a setback because of this, and don’t want to experience this distress again,” she added.
*Name changed to protect the source's identity.
