Understanding the NEET UG 2024 Scandal: Public outcry, grace marks and leaks

An important exam for prospective medical students in India, the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) has become mired in controversy. On May 5, the exam was held, and around 24 lakh students took the test.

The NEET UG 2024 results, which were recently released, have provoked contentious discussions, legal challenges, and general unrest. Students, parents, and legislators are debating fairness, openness, and the future of medical education in the wake of this year's exam, which was marred by controversy over the distribution of grace marks and claims of question paper leaks.

The format of the NEET 2024 exam is as follows:

1. There are 200 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on the exam.

2. It covers Biology (split into Zoology and Botany), Chemistry, and Physics.

3. Applicants must respond to 180 of these inquiries.

4. The NEET score is 720 overall.

5. The exam will run for three hours and twenty minutes, or two hundred minutes, from 2:00 pm to 5:20 pm.

6. There are two sections for each subject: Section A has 35 questions, and Section B has 15 questions. Ten of the fifteen questions in Part B require an answer.

SCHEME FOR MARKING

The following is the NEET 2024 marking scheme:

1. Each correct response is worth four marks.

2. One mark is deducted for incorrect responses.

3. Multiple response selection results in a marked loss of one, however, unanswered questions have no bearing on the final score.

4. There will be 720 possible points available for the exam.

67 pupils achieved a perfect score of 720. It is clear from NTA's justification provided to the court that grace marks were granted for two reasons. The first was the grace for having lost so much time, and the second was the grace for a physics question for which there were purportedly two correct solutions.

Students have grace in this as the new NCERT physics book provides one explanation while the older version provides another. Of the 67 students who received a score of 720, 44 received a perfect score as a result of physics faults, and 6 received a grace period for time lost. The real number of top scorers, which was 17, increased to 67 once the grace marks were given.

It is not feasible to score 718 and 719, as indicated by AIR 68 and 69, respectively, by the marking scheme above, which assigns +4 points for correct answers, -1 points for incorrect answers, and 0 points for not responding. In response, the NTA stated that they had to implement a normalization technique because certain pupils had missed class, which is how they arrived at figures 718 and 719.

The NTA has dismissed as unfounded the claims of paper leaks made by students in Rajasthan, who claimed that their center had initially given them question papers with premarked answers before taking them back.

In a similar vein, Hindi-speaking students in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, were given English-language exam questions, which delayed their attempts and cost them time. The Collector's intervention allowed the exam to be rescheduled in Sawai Madhopur, but the Chhattisgarh students were required to appear in court.

 There looked to be too much coincidence when eight students with identical roll numbers from the same Haryana exam center obtained AIR 62 to 69.