June 4, 2024, unequivocally, has left a spell on the students, who are the country’s future.
First, for developments in the political spectrum, which indirectly involves students. And, second, which has students at its crux.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) officially announced the results for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2024 on Tuesday.
In a record-breaking performance, over 67 aspirants have received the perfect score for the first time ever, getting an AIR 1, with a highest score of 99.997129 percentile.
With 1,65,047 students, Uttar Pradesh had the most qualifying applicants, followed by Maharashtra (1,42,665) and Rajasthan (1,21,240).
Thirteen thousand sixteen thousand candidates made it through the test out of the twenty-three thousand pupils that took it. 5,47,036 of the 998,298 male applicants met the qualifying requirements, while 7,69,222 of the 13,34,982 female candidates passed the test.
To add to the controversy regarding NEET, a large section of medical aspirants have started demanding for NEET re-exam 2024 citing paper leak allegations, last-minute implementations of grace marks for loss of time, and error in NEET results 2024.
Controversy over irregularities
1. Although the NTA rubbished the NEET paper leak claims, which started surfacing even before the exam was conducted. The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police department had arrested 13 people in connection with the NEET UG paper leak case. Later, the testing agency held re-exam for candidates who have different question papers in the Rajasthan exam centre.
Days before the single-largest national medical entrance exam, a video of a masked man claiming that the mastermind behind the BPSC TRE 3 exam paper leak may leak the NEET UG questions as well went viral on social media. However, there was no official confirmation or clarification from the NTA regarding this. Later, the testing agency called it baseless.
2. Some students said that the NEET result 2024 notification had details on marks obtained by candidates in each category. However, it was later removed. They also argued that the last-minute awarding of grace marks is “unfair”.
The NTA clarified on Tuesday night that the NEET grace marks were awarded to students who raised concerns about loss of exam time. However, students have expressed dissatisfaction and said there is no clarity in the NTA statement.
Students also have started demanding for “the Apex Court order dated 13.06.2018” based on which the grace marks were awarded.
3. Aspirants have also expressed their doubts about the NEET toppers with the same sequence of roll numbers getting highest marks in NEET exam. “8 #NEET Candidates with the same sequence starting with 2307010168, 333, 403, 460, 178, 037, 186, 198 topped from same centre,” an aspirant wrote on X.
4. Discrepancies in score increase as several students have achieved 718 or 719 marks, which is unlikely and rank of 1.54 is unusual. It has been found that a student can get a full mark of 720. But 718 or 719 is not possible. This is because, if a student leaves one question then s/he can fetch 716 (that is minus 4) and if one answers a question incorrectly then the student will get 715 (which is minus 5).
Such controversial factors have led to an uproar on social media where students are asking NTA to revoke the NEET result 2024 and publish it after rechecking. A call for re-examination has also been given.