Bengal board students fast catching up with CBSE mates, show NEET-UG data

KOLKATA: The results for NEET-UG 2022 reveal that the gap between successful students from state boards and the CBSE has narrowed considerably. For Bengal, the gap between candidates scoring above the base score of 324 from CBSE and state Higher Secondary board has now halved from 14.9 percentage points in 2019 to 7.5 percentage points this year. Educationists say this is largely because NEET-UG can now be written in Bengali, making it easier for Bengali-medium state board students to qualify.
A total of 64,801 Bengal board students appeared for NEET-UG this year, a sharp increase from the 35,118 HS students who took the entrance exam in 2021. As many as 42,136 of this year's HS board aspirants took the paper in Bengali and 11,007 HS board students scored above the qualifying marks of 324. In comparison, 15,096 CBSE students from Bengal appeared in NEET-UG 2022 and 3,698 scored above 324.
Bengal-specific data for NEET-UG 2022 show that in the 324-360 marks range, there were 604 CBSE students against 1,798 students from the Bengal board. In the 360-432 marks range, there are 1,039 CBSE students and 3,106 Bengal board students. The pattern continues in 432-540 and 540-570 marks range, with the number of Bengal board students three times that of CBSE students. But in the top-bracket, that is 694-720 marks range, there are 11 CBSE students but only four from the state board.