India’s largest entrance exam, the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG), went even bigger and the number of applications reached an all-time high this year. However, the medical entrance exam also saw many instances of mismanagement during the exam. From dress code, to changes in the exam rules, to the increase in the number of applicants, know these five incidents that took place during NEET UG 2022 in detail:
1. Highest Number of Requests Ever: About 95 percent of students who applied for the medical entrance exam turned up for NEET 2022. NEET 2022 received the highest number of applications ever, according to the National Testing Agency (NTA). Crossing the 18 lakh mark, a total of 18,72,329 candidates had registered for the largest entrance examination in the province, of which 10.64 lakh were women, NTA officials said. This was the first time the number of registrations for the NEET medical entrance examination exceeded 18 lakh, a significant increase of over 2.5 lakh from 2021.
2. No Age Limit: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will no longer have an upper limit. Everyone, regardless of age, will be eligible to take the medical entrance exam from NEET 2022. This decision was made during the meeting between the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the National Medical Council (NMC) on October 21.
Previously, the maximum age limit for applying for a doctor was 25 years for the unconditional category, and for students belonging to the category SC/ST/OBC-NCL and PwBD candidates, it was further relaxed by five years.
Now, regardless of category, students who have completed their class 12 level of education in physics, chemistry, and biology are eligible to take the medical entrance exam.
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About 15 lakh students appear for NEET every year, with its easing, the number of students applying for the entrance examination is expected to increase. This could increase competition for the medical colleges, which already have a limited number of seats.
3. Students Asked To Remove Bra: Nearly 100 female students at an exam center in Kerala claimed they were asked to take off their bras before taking the medical entrance exam as part of the body search process. The students said they had to take off their bras at the metal detection center because of “snags” in their inner clothing. The incident took place at the exam center in Kollam.
The NEET 2022 dress code states that students are not allowed to wear metal objects or accessories during the exam as an anti-fraud measure. The advice talked about belts, but there was no mention of undergarments.
In this case, female staff of a third-party company outsourced by NTA was arrested to work at the exam center.
4. Impersonators Tried To Take Exams On Behalf Of Children: A gang of exam solvers were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while trying to pass the medical entrance exam on behalf of students – NEET 2022. While the FIR has been filed against 11 people, as many as eight have been arrested so far. Among those arrested, there are six exam solvers, according to the CBI. The ongoing investigation so far has revealed that the gang would ask students to provide them with their login IDs and password. The moment the admission card was downloaded, the exam solver gang would change the admission card.
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To secure a seat in medical colleges or earn enough points in NEET, the gang members would demand at least Rs 20 lakh. Of this, about Rs 4-5 lakh would be given to medical university students or coaching institute experts who would disguise themselves as students and write the exam, the study revealed.
5. Question paper swapped: At an exam center in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, students claimed that the Hindi and English medium questions had been mixed up. Furthermore, an NTA official confirmed the same. The official added that although the question papers were mixed up, the students were given extra time to complete their papers.
After the exam, students and parents gathered in front of the exam center of the Army Public School in Sri Ganganagar to protest. A NEET aspirant claimed that the exam started at 2pm, but around 4:30pm people at the exam center were informed that they had been wrongly given the bilingual questionnaire intended for students with medium Hindi. While Hindi medium students received the question paper intended for English medium students.
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The student said he completed the entire exam in two and a half hours, but authorities took the questionnaire away from everyone and replaced it with the one intended for English medium students. The questionnaire was the same as the bilingual, and the students were able to finish it by 6 p.m., the aspirant added. However, the exam has now been canceled and the students will have to take it again in a different period.
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