NEET 2018: “The paper was moderate, however, the Botany part was really tough to answer, and Physics, a quite lengthy.” Soumya Chandra Das, a student of Belur High School said
NEET 2018: The NEET 2018 examination just concluded at various centres in 136 cities across the country. Students found this year’s paper between moderate to tough. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Soumya Chandra Das, a student of Belur High School said, “The paper was moderate, however, the Botany part was really tough to answer and Physics was quite lengthy.” Another student in Delhi said, “Questions in Botany are quite conceptual, without understanding the subject it is hard to answer.” He rated the overall paper as moderate, with Chemistry being the easiest of them all.
NEET 2018: How was the paper, expert’s take
Physics
In Physics, about 10 questions required strong analytical thinking as some of them involved a combination of concepts. The paper covered the entire syllabus comprehensively. There were only a few straightforward questions. The majority were of moderate level difficulty. Unlike previous year’s NEET paper, which comprised of questions requiring quick calculation skills and time-consuming problems, this one is more balanced and can be completed within the prescribed time.
Physics was the toughest section amongst the three and it was lengthy, too. There were 24 questions from the 12th standard syllabus and 21 questions from the 11th standard syllabus. This section had two difficult questions, nine moderate questions and 34 easy questions.
Chemistry
Coordination chemistry and chemical bonding got a fair amount of representation than expected. Apart from that, there is a balanced representation of 11th and 12th concepts. The questions were of a bit higher difficulty compared to previous years. Except for about five to eight questions, most questions were of moderate difficulty. Electrochemistry and solutions had less than expected representation.
Chemistry was the moderate section amongst the three. This section was not lengthy. There were 20 questions asked from the 12th standard syllabus and 20 questions from the 11th standard syllabus. This section had one difficult question, 20 moderate questions and 24 easy questions. Most questions were based on simple concepts.
Biology
Biology had more questions related to human physiology and reproduction, genetics Molecular biology, cell biology, ecology. Rest of the chapters have had a balanced representation. Deviating from the past, questions based on facts and the memorisation of events were more. The difficulty level is moderate and focus on application of knowledge is higher, which is a good trend.
Biology was the easiest section amongst the three. However, this section was not lengthy. There were 46 questions asked from the 12th standard syllabus and 44 questions from the 11th standard syllabus. This section had 9 difficult questions, 33 moderate questions and 48 easy questions. However, this section was easier than last year and had very few application-based questions. Most of them were directly from NCERT and were concept based. Most students found the paper moderate and expected marks in the range of 350-400.
Prof UdayNath Mishra, Chief Academic Officer, BasicFirst, said, “NEET 2018 was easy to moderate with 170 questions based on NCERT and only 10 questions were found tricky as interlinking two topics. Minimum marks expected to qualify NEET for any college is 135+-5. However, students opting for government colleges would require 510+-5. Out of the total 180 questions, 110 questions were found easy; 45 questions were of moderate difficulty level, whereas 25 questions were of high difficulty level. Biology was found to be the easiest of all, Chemistry was easy to moderate while students found Physics to be the toughest.”
The examination consists of 180 objective type, multiple choice questions from physics, chemistry and biology (botany and zoology). The duration of the test is three hours. Apart from Hindi and English, the examination was conducted in languages like Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts the examination every year for aspirants seeking admission to undergraduate MBBS and BDS courses all over India, lakhs of candidates apply for admission in medical colleges. With tough competition and a vast syllabus, months of dedication, focus and hard work is required to excel in the entrance test.