‘Changes in NCERT books among reasons behind high NEET scores’
NEW DELHI: A comparatively easier question paper, changes made in NCERT textbooks, and grace marks provided to students for “loss of exam time” at certain centres — these are some of the reasons officials on Thursday cited behind students getting higher scores in NEET-UG 2024, including an unprecedented 67 all India toppers.
The development came two days after the National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the results of the 2024 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate, or NEET-UG — a pre-medical entrance examination for admission to all undergraduate medical courses in the country — in which 67 students shared the all India rank one by scoring perfect 720/720 marks, including six students from the same exam centre in Haryana. The results triggered a massive uproar, with several aspirants and parents demanding a probe and seeking a “re-exam”, alleging that the paper was leaked at certain centres where students got high scores.
Responding to the allegations, NTA officials told HT that at least four reasons led to high scores
this year.
“The NTA had received few representations from students and some high courts, including Punjab and Haryana, Delhi, and Chhattisgarh, raising concerns over loss of time during exam. Afterwards, a committee was formed to look into the matter,” a senior NTA official said, requesting anonymity.
The committee, the official said, stuck to the normalising formula devised by the Supreme Court in a 2018 judgment to address the loss of time faced by candidates. “The loss of time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. Therefore, the marks of students at some centres went up.”
In a statement on Thursday, the NTA said a total of 1,563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time and the revised marks of such candidates vary from -20 to 720. “Amongst these, the score of two candidates also happens to be 718 and 719 marks, respectively, due to compensatory marks,” the NTA said.
On a large number of students bagging the top rank, the senior official pointed out that the question paper was prepared using a new and revised NCERT textbook while some students had prepared from old NCERT textbooks. In the multiple-choice question format in Physics, while one option was correct according to the new NCERT book, another was right according to the old one.
“The NTA got representation from the students on the same, due to which NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Due to this, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers,” the official said.
On several toppers coming from the same exam centre, the official said: “This centre in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh also had a time loss case. Therefore, it is likely that those students who did well got further benefited by the revised marks they got as compensation for the time loss.”