Being late by a few minutes for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is likely to cost many students a year as they were not allowed into the exam centre. In all likelihood, they will be able to give the test only next year.
NEET is a gateway for candidates to bag a medical and dental seat in colleges across India.
There was high drama at several centres in Bengaluru on Sunday as students were seen jumping over compound walls when confronted with locked gates. Security guards and the concerned authorities sent them back. Some of the students had come from Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga and other districts to take the exam.
“I was just five minutes late, but the gates were closed and despite begging them repeatedly, I was not allowed to take the exam,” said a student who had been assigned Army Public School as his centre.
Officials said that they had to deny permission as they were given strict instructions that candidates had to be in the centre at 9.30 a.m.
Dress code confusion
Despite instructions on what not to wear, students came to examination centres wearing earrings, watches, hair clips, belt and shoes. They were made to remove these ‘banned’ items before entering the centre.
Some students had to also get their sleeves cut as they were not allowed to wear full sleeves, while others wrote the test barefoot as they were wearing the wrong footwear.
Lengthy paper
Candidates who attempted the test on Sunday felt that the paper was lengthy, and many were unable to complete the paper on time.
Srinandan G. Dixit from Indiranagar, who was able to complete the test in the allotted time, said: “I think this year’s paper was slightly tougher than the last year. Though there were a few questions that were tricky and out of syllabus, it was overall good. A lot of concept questions were from the practice papers that we had done in college. I was able to finish the paper within the allotted time”.
In some centres, students alleged that the question papers came late.
“The question papers came in a little late, hence time was bit of an issue. Also, Physics and Chemistry were lengthy and a bit tricky,” said Medha Sharath from Deeksha Centre for Learning.
