Despite the Supreme Court making the NEET mandatory for admission to medical colleges, Telangana students still have to take the EAMCET medical test if they wish to join Veterinary Science, Agriculture and Pharmacy courses. “The medical test of the EAMCET will be held on May 15 as per schedule,” said T. Papi Reddy, chairman of the Telangana State Council of Higher Education. Majority of the medical aspirants prefer Veterinary Science and B.Sc (Agriculture) courses if they cannot make it to medical and dental courses through their ranks. So medical part of the test is must and we will go ahead with the test.” The NEET may not really turn out to be a tough nut to crack for the State students as majority of them also prepare with the national tests like AIIMS or JIPMER in mind. So effectively, NEET may not really impact the students’ performance except the fact they have to factor in the negative marking of NEET unlike the EAMCET where negative marking is not in practice. “We used to train students to attempt all questions. Now they have to be careful about the questions they are unsure of,” said a medical trainer.
At the same time rural students, particularly those in the Government colleges, may lose out in the race as they are not tuned to CBSE syllabus on which NEET is based. Corporate colleges’ students, however, are trained in CBSE syllabus as well and they will not face any challenge in taking NEET except the negative marking. “There is around 10 per cent variation between State and CBSE syllabus. Among medical applicants around 30 per cent are from rural areas and their interests cannot be compromised,” argues a teacher.
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