New Delhi: Concerns about grade inflation, resulting in an unprecedented 67 candidates achieving the top rank in this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG 2024) — including six from the same examination centre in Haryana — have led many medical aspirants who appeared in this year exams to demand a re-examination.
Meanwhile, worried parents, anxious about their children’s futures, are also considering knocking on the doors of the judiciary to understand what went wrong with this year’s NEET-UG examination, where many students bagged a perfect score of 720 out of 720.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the results Tuesday, revealing that 67 students had achieved NEET All India Rank (AIR) 1 with a percentile score of 99.997129.
In a statement shared Thursday on X, NTA said that this year’s NEET-UG was conducted by NTA on 5 May across 4,750 centres in 571 cities for more than 24 lakh candidates. It further said that in light of recent queries raised by candidates, NTA had decided to issue a clarification.
Highlighting the cut-off score, it wrote that it was determined based on the overall performance of candidates each year and the increase in this year’s cut-off reflected the competitive nature of the exam and higher performance standards achieved by students.
NTA further said that writ petitions were filed by candidates of NEET-UG 2024 before Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh High Courts, raising concerns of loss of time at exam centres. “A Grievance Redressal Committee consisting of eminent experts from the field of examination and academia, was constituted,” it stated, adding that the committee “considered the grievances on the basis of factual reports of the functionaries and CCTV footage from concerned exam centres”.
“The loss of examination time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with marks based on their answering efficiency and time lost…,” NTA said. It further explained that 1,563 candidates were “compensated for the loss of time and the revised marks of such candidates vary from -20 to 720 marks”.
“Amongst these, the score of two candidates also happens to be 718 and 719 marks, respectively, due to compensatory marks.” It added.
NTA further categorically denied any case of paper leak. “NTA also issued a detailed Press Release on 06 May 2024 stating that there has not been any paper leak as was being circulated on social media. The same stand has been reiterated,” it said.
Pushpinder Singh Khera, Head of Radiology at AIIMS Jodhpur and the parent of a student who could not qualify NEET this year, even though she scored 696 out 720, told ThePrint, that her rank in this year’s competitive exam was 2,647, while otherwise her rank should have been between 450 to 550. “There are some obvious irregularities in NEET MBBS entrance,” he said.
He added that while her score will get her into a good medical college, he along with at least 25 more parents are now fighting for re-examination. “There has been a massive paper leak plus other irregularities this year. We are now planning to file an urgent writ petition in the Supreme Court,” added Khera.
As the scorecards of students go viral, many claim that scoring 718 marks is not possible since each NEET question carries four marks and a negative mark is given for every wrong answer. So, after 720, the highest score can only be 716.
Moreover, according to reports, as many as 44 students received grace marks for answering a question wrong due to an incorrect reference in their old Class 12 NCERT science textbook.
In the previous years, there was one topper each in 2019 and 2020, three toppers in 2021, one in 2022, and two in 2023.
Responding to the controversy, Congress wrote on X: “After the NEET exam, now the NEET result is also in controversy. After the NEET results were declared, questions were being raised on six students from the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks. Apart from this, many other irregularities related to the NEET exam have also come to light.”
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‘Devastating impact’
A 20-year-old female student from Kashmir, who recently appeared in the NEET-UG told ThePrint that she scored 419 out of 720 in the competitive exam. “How is NTA sure which students should have been given grace marks when everything is computerised? The scores are not making sense” she said.
She further said that the timeline for results given to students was 14 June, however, the result was preponed at the time of 2024 Lok Sabha election results. “They didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. They knew elections would get more coverage. It’s a scam,” she added.
She said that the cut-off is suddenly so high that students do not stand a chance to get into any colleges. “We have been mailing NTA and we are constantly posting on social media but we don’t expect any action to be taken. I wanted to reappear for the examination but I am scared now. This can happen with us again,” she explained.
For 19-year-old Sadia Fayaz, this was her first attempt at NEET exams and she scored 511 out of 720. She said that while she knew that she was not going to qualify this year’s examination, she said she was disturbed looking at those who scored more than 600 and yet failed to qualify. For students like Fayaz, opting for a second attempt is now a huge risk, she explained. “This is unfair and we don’t expect things to get better next year. Before this, two or three students used to top NEET, now suddenly 67 students did it,” she said.
“We all worked really hard for more than a year. But it all went to waste,” Fayaz said.
Amit Gupta, a teacher preparing students for competitive exams for the past 24 years in Kota Rajasthan, told ThePrint that in a competition as tough as NEET, one mark determines the future of thousands of students and the NTA’s decision to give grace marks will result in increased cut-off.
“If a non-deserving candidate for instance scores 550 and another student scores 630, the second student obviously deserves a seat before the first one. But by giving a raise of 100 to the first student, the cut-off rate also goes higher, reaching 650. The second student, who actually deserved the seat, won’t make it. So, grace marks will obviously help a non-deserving candidate to go forward,” he explained.
Gupta said that the teachers have five demands from the government. This includes openly declaring how many students were given grace marks, declaring the grace marks that were awarded, providing rationale behind giving grace marks, answering if any internal committee judged the fall out of the decision.
According to Gupta the most important demand, however, is to remove grace marks completely, and republish results based on the original scores of students, to ensure fair results.
“If that doesn’t happen, we will go ahead in the court and take a stay against the admission process in medical colleges, as it should be halted till they resolve this merit list issue,” Gupta noted, adding that every year, at least 27 lakh students prepare for NEET-UG and such decisions can have a “devastating impact” on young students who are usually between the age groups 16-20.
Due to the limited number of seats, not all 67 students who received first rank may be able to get into AIIMS. In such cases, the NTA’s tie-breaking policy will be applied. This policy awards higher ranks to candidates with higher marks in Biology first, followed by Chemistry, then Physics, and finally by a computer-generated draw of lots if necessary.
Calling it “manipulation”, Gupta said that this will have a devastating impact on the morale of students. “Students should not panic. And parents should have full faith in the system. We are sure that eventually the truth will prevail and the government will take the right steps,” he said.
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