Over 20.8 lakh candidates across 548 cities in India and 14 cities abroad appeared for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) held on Sunday, May 4.
The exam, held by the National Testing Agency (NTA), to determine the admission of students to undergraduate medical programmes, were held successfully, said government sources.
This number falls short by 2.5 lakh of those who wrote the NEET last year that was inundated with complaints of irregularities, including paper-leak. NEET-UG was held at 5,453 centres in India, including 103 in Delhi.
A section of students spoken to in Delhi by The New Indian Express felt the exam was tough, particularly the Physics section. Some said they ran short of time to complete the 180 questions and left a chunk of questions blank in order to avoid negative marking.
The cut-off this year for the exam, which is assessed for 720 marks totally, would be less than 600, they felt.
A source said, "A key initiative in this whole exercise was the setting-up of Centralised Control Room under the Centre's Ministry of Education with representatives from the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Defence, Home Affairs and Electronic and Information Technology. It was set-up with the objective of monitoring the complete scale of activities related to examination at the ground level."
To ensure additional safety, most of the exam centres were located in government and government-aided schools, universities and institutions, the source added, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
The district administrations across all the States/UTs reviewed the security arrangements from time to time which included enhanced security measures, safe transportation of question papers, logistics support, and deployment of local police personnel at the exam centres.
"To ensure a smooth and secure conduct of the exam, mock drills were held on May 3 at all exam centres. These drills helped in test readiness in terms of functionality of mobile signal jammers, availability of adequate manpower for frisking and biometric authentication procedures among other arrangements," the source added.
To help students stay comfortable when writing their exams in the peak summer, uninterrupted electricity supply, portable toilets and first aid and ambulance services were arranged.
