On Friday, first-year MBBS students of many colleges were in for a shock when they received the question papers for their Anatomy-II examination. When the exam commenced at 9.30 a.m., papers with questions from the Anatomy-I syllabus were distributed to the students. The papers were replaced with the correct ones only after nearly 15 minutes.
Exams for MBBS students under Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University began on Thursday. For first-year students, the initial paper was Anatomy-I that covers upper and lower limbs, abdomen and pelvis.
The Anatomy-II exam, which deals with head and neck, brain and thorax, was on Friday. “At 9.30 a.m., the invigilators distributed the question papers and I found it contained questions from the Anatomy-I syllabus. At first, I thought only I had got the wrong paper but soon, many were pointing out the same issue,” said a student of a city government medical college.
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However, invigilators told the students that the question paper had been sent by the university and asked them to continue writing. “Within five to 10 minute, we were asked to stop writing and given the correct question papers. The exam commenced at 9.55 a.m. and we were given three hours,” another student said.
The same scene prevailed at several colleges across the State. A student of a college in Salem said the paper was titled Anatomy-II and had the correct subject code but the wrong set of questions. “The invigilators told us that a few questions could overlap. We wrote two sheets of answers before we were given the right papers,” he said.
Many students said the mix-up created some tension as Anatomy – II was a tough subject. “We often find it difficult to cover the entire portion during preparations. We were afraid the questions were from portions we had missed,” a student said.
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The university usually uploads the question paper 30 minutes before the exam and releases it 15 minutes before. The medical colleges then download and make copies of the papers, officials said.
Authorities of a few colleges said that they had only downloaded the paper available online and distributed copies.
“However, we soon obtained the right papers and distributed them,” an official said.
University officials said the Anatomy-I paper was attached with the Anatomy-II paper that was uploaded.
“Within a few minutes, we released the correct papers,” an official said.