Lost In The Rat Race

The NEET exam is mired in multiple controversies. Will this medical entrance exam fiasco discourage future aspirants?

- Abhik Bhattacharya

RAUNAK* was in the 2nd standard when he scribbled on the back of his report card, “I want to be a doctor.” Now he is 20 years old. It was his third attempt in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and he scored 663—usually good enough to get admission to any of the topmost medical colleges in Delhi. However, NEET 2024 is neither a usual case nor an aberration. Raunak’s dreams are shattered, as are those of many others.

On June 4, when millions in the country were glued to their TVs to find out the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections, a notification was issued: ‘NEET-UG results declared’. Eighteen-year-old Ayesha was comfortably sitting with her parents closely watching the political scorecard. “Suddenly we got to know that the NEET results are out. I immediately opened the site and found that I ranked 41,000. It was impossible,” she says.

When the NEET Answer Key PDF was released, Ayesha compared it with her responses and found that she had scored 636 out of 720—good enough to get into a good government college, if one considers the earlier cut-offs. Last year, the cut-off was 610, and if you consider Ayesha’s marks, the rank should have been something around 8,000-9,000, says her mother. “However, when I saw the result and found my rank, I was literally shocked and then I got to know that 67 students had got full marks!” says Ayesha. In the last two years, usually 2-3 students used to achieve the feat.

Though the NEET results were supposed to come out on June 14, the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body that conducts NEET, decided to release it 10 days earlier. Within minutes of the declaration of the results, various controversies cropped up, especially on social media.