BENGALURU: Medical and dental undergraduate seat aspirants taking the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2018 on Sunday not only faced stringent rules implemented at the examination centres but also had to deal with a tough and lengthy exam. Even the experts admitted that the paper was tougher than last year.
Dr Sridhar G, founder of Deeksha Centre for Learning, said, “This year’s paper was tougher than last year’s. While the Biology paper was on expected lines, primarily from the NCERT books with a few analytical questions, the real surprise was the Physics paper.
While all questions were well within the syllabus, many had two or more concepts interlinked and over 55 percent of the paper was numerical, which took more time to complete than expected. A total score of 500 may be needed to secure a merit seat at any one of the medical colleges in Karnataka, while the cut-off mark is expected to be around 340.”
Dr HN Subramanyam, HoD-Physics at BASE, said, “Physics paper had 45 per cent questions from first year and 55 per cent questions from the second year. About 45 per cent of the questions were easy, 35 per cent moderate and 20 per cent difficult. In the first year portion, there were more questions from Mechanics than from Thermal Physics and Waves. But in the second year portion, questions were equally distributed among all topics. On the whole, the paper can be regarded as moderate.”
Prof Soumya Kumari S, HoD-Chemistry at BASE, said, “Chemistry paper has 53.3 percent from first year and 46.7 percent from the second year portions. Chemistry paper was moderate. All questions were from NCERT syllabus. Most of the questions were direct and a few were on applied concept.”But the students’ found it tough despite the “moderate” description given to the exams by the experts. Bhoomika CR from Surana College said she did not get enough time to attempt all questions. “This year’s paper was tougher than last year. There were a few questions that were tricky and out of the syllabus.”
Arjun B from DCFL PU College said the test was a bit lengthy. “I think this year’s paper was at the same level as last year. However, the Physics section was quite lengthy and there were a few questions that were tricky as well because of which I had to skip a few of them. There were some direct questions from the NCERT textbook in other sections.”
ASPIRANTS DID NOT FOLLOW DRESS CODE
Despite CBSE issuing a clear instruction on dress code, some students came wearing full arm shirts and the security personnel at the entrance made them wait till the last moment before cutting the shirt sleeves to render them half-sleeved. Students were also found wearing metal earrings, wristwatches, hair clips, neck chains, belts and shoes despite rules asking them not to.
They were made to remove them at the entrance. Girls who were wearing burqas and hijabs were asked to remove them during the exams. But authorities were found to be accommodative too. For those who had failed to bring photographs, some centres had made arrangements to take photos at the premises.