The National Testing Agency (NTA) has responded to the Supreme Court's queries about alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). One of the key issues addressed by the NTA is the unusually high number of perfect scorers in the recent test.
A total of 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720 out of 720 in this nationwide medical entrance examination. The significant increase in the number of top performers has raised concerns about the integrity of the exams, especially given that six of these top scorers came from the same test centre in Jhajjar, Haryana.
According to the NTA's affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the six students from the Jhajjar centre achieved a perfect score after being granted grace marks to compensate for lost time during the exam. However, in a subsequent retest conducted on May 23, these students were unable to replicate their perfect scores. As a result, the total number of students scoring 720/720 now stands at 61.
The testing agency then said that 17 candidates out of these 61 had scored full marks on provisional answer keys. The remaining 44 got a perfect score after revision in an Answer Key of Physics. "During the Answer Key Challenge period, i.e., from 29.05.2024 to 01.06.2024, NTA received 13.373 challenges to the provisional answer key of one question in Physics. Due to the differences in the old and new editions of the NCERT textbook, the Subject Expert(s) held that two options may be taken as correct in place of one option for this Question...," NTA said.
Therefore, the agency said that the actual number of candidates who scored 720/720 without any revision in answer keys was 17, "which is not significantly higher in number than in previous years".
"It is further relevant to mention that the 17 candidates who scored 720/720 based on the provisional answer keys are distributed to 16 centres located in 15 cities. Similarly, 61 candidates who scored 720/720 marks on final answer keys are distributed across 58 centres located in 41 cities across the country," the NTA said in its affidavit.
The agency conducting the tests also mentioned that there is no evidence to support the petitioner's claim that a disproportionate number of high-scoring students are from specific centres.
"In this regard, the result of the top 100 candidates was analysed, and it has been reported that they are distributed across 95 centres located in 56 cities within 18 States/UTs of the country. This diverse distribution highlights the widespread participation and competitive spirit among students from different regions and educational backgrounds," the NTA has said.
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