The students of State board schools who appeared for NEET on Sunday shared similar concerns about subject components as their CBSE counterparts. While a majority of them found biology easy, many found the portions in physics challenging and chemistry, moderately difficult.
“However, there needs to be a change in the way we are tested in school and in our board exams. Many of us stick to preparing for questions from our books for the board examinations. But when it came to an exam like NEET, we struggled to answer tougher questions,” said S. Pramodhan, who took the test on Sunday. Echoing his view, S. Dayanitha said that as the State board curriculum in physics focussed largely on theory, the physics NEET paper, which was laden with sums and calculations, posed a challenge.
“I bought a set of NCERT textbooks to prepare for the exam which helped me to an extent. At the school-level, we need to be taught how to internalise concepts better and not just go by what we might need to crack the board exams,” said V.B. Jaspreet.
Crash course
Some State board students attended a month-long crash course at private coaching centres after their board exams ended in March. “The course helped me tackle the paper to a certain extent,” said Sri Vignesh, after taking the test.
The difficulties that NEET aspirants from State board schools faced last y ear prompted the School Education department to announce a phased revamp of the syllabus in State board schools.
C. Satish, director of the Paavai group of institutions, said, “With the syllabus revamp and a change in the evaluation method in the offing, more students will be comfortable taking up competitive exams in the future.”
