Thousands of students across Karnataka wrote the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses in the State on Sunday under the shadow of COVID-19. The exams passed off without any major glitches, sources said.
Aashish S. Raman, one of the students who wrote the exam, told The Hindu that COVID-19 safety precautions at examination centres were “very good”.
“Not only did we sanitise our hands before entering the centre, they made us sanitise again while recording our fingerprints. There was more than six-feet distance between students and only nine in one room in my centre,” he said.
However, there was some confusion at some centres in the distribution of question papers and answer sheets. “Some invigilators were confused about the procedures and at my centre the papers were distributed at least 10 minutes late, which we lost. This delay affected us, especially because there were 200 questions this time, compared to 180 earlier. Choosing which questions to answer took more time,” said another student.
She also said there were issues with the Aadhaar card verification of some students, where there was a mismatch in the date of birth on their Aadhaar card and other documents.
Such students were asked to produce the original documents to prove their date of birth through their parents after the exam, causing some panic. However, later it was rectified, she said.
Multiple students The Hindu spoke to said while questions in chemistry and biology were easy, those in physics were tricky and tough.
“I would say overall the question paper was moderate. Most chemistry and biology questions were based on the NCERT syllabus, while physics questions were relatively tough,” said Madhu Murali Krishna, another student who wrote the exam.
The competitive examination for medical, dental and AYUSH seats was conducted in 13 languages, including Kannada, by the National Testing Agency.
