The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET is conducted for selecting students to study medical and dental courses.
AMIDST stringent frisking of candidates at exam centres, the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) was held without any major incidents on Sunday. As many as 20,000 medical aspirants took the offline entrance test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, from Pune.
Although some students, reportedly unaware of the CBSE-prescribed dress code at the time of appearing for the exam, had a tough time entering the venues.
The dress code clearly mentions that students must wear light-coloured clothes with half-sleeves not having any buttons, brooch or badges and flowers among other decoratives, with salwar or trousers. As far as footwear is concerned, the board asked candidates to either wear slippers or sandals with low heals. Shoes have been disallowed.
On Sunday, at Kendriya Vidyala, Ganeshkhind Road, some students were stopped from entering the centre as they were wearing white printed T-shirts. One of them, took off his T-shirt and entered the centre wearing a vest and trousers. Some boys were seen removing their shoes and entering the premises bare feet.
Some officials found buttons on dresses and accessories with some woman candidates. While metal buttons worn by a woman were removed before she entered the exam centre, earrings worn by another were confiscated.
The NEET is for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses.
While most candidates thought the three-hour-long test was moderately difficult, some said the Physics paper was lengthy and most difficult among the three papers. “The Physics section was tough but Chemistry and Biology sections were fairly simple,” said Komal More who had travelled from Karmala to for the exam.
Pune’s Vaishnavi Bokad said: “Physics took up a lot of my time because of the calculations involved. Barring that, I managed to finish the test within the stipulated time.” Some teachers also said the calculations in Physics were elaborate and might have taken up extra time.
“The exam this year was tougher than last year and so, we expect the cut-offs to be lowered slightly. About five questions in Biology were not from the NCERT-prescribed syllabus,” said Durgesh Mangeshkar, the director of IIT Prashikshan in the city.
Candidates from Karad, Latur, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, along with local students, started queuing at the examination centres around 9 am and each candidate was checked thoroughly. Women were led to booths where they were checked. A student from Latur was reportedly not allowed to enter the centre, as he arrived three minutes later than the final entry time of 9.30 am.
Ashutosh Shinde, a student of Dayanand College in Latur, said: “It is my first attempt. For me, the Physics and Chemistry sections were both difficult. I did not find the paper lengthy.”
On his second attempt this year, Sohail Mulla, from Karad, was relieved. “As it was my second attempt, I did not find the paper difficult. But, Biology was slightly tougher than last year. Rest of the sections was fairly easy,” said the student of Shri Hanamantrao Chate Junior College.