More than six lakh students on Sunday appeared for the first phase of the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), a common medical entrance test for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses across the country.
According to CBSE officials who conducted the test, over 6.67 lakh students had registered for the exam.
“Reports we received suggested there were around 8 per cent students [of the total registered] who did not take the test. This figure is considerably less than the previous year’s when around 15 per cent of candidates were absentees,” a senior official said.
The CBSE had allowed candidates to wear traditional and religious clothes, including burqas, in exam halls.
“The exam went smoothly and the feedback we received was largely positive,” the official said, adding that metal detectors and jammers were used to ensure that unfair means were not used.
The Supreme court had cleared the decks for holding the exam in two phases by approving the schedule put before it by the Centre, the CBSE and the Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1.
