BENGALURU: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 was conducted amid tight vigil at 23 centres in the city on Sunday. Across the state, as many as 77,393 candidates applied for the test which was held at 156 centres.
At different centres, the candidates who reached exam venues even few minutes late were not allowed to take the test. At Army Public School centre located at Kamaraja Road, Bengaluru, five students were not allowed to write the test. To pacify the protesting parents, authorities allowed the students to enter exam hall around 9.45am, but the latecomers were asked to move out immediately after the exam started. At few other centres, students were asked to remove ear rings, bangles and shoes. Candidates were thoroughly checked before being allowed to enter the examination hall.
In one of the incidents, a girl who was unable to remove her ear ring was even taken to a goldsmith.
“Locker facilities was available at our centre to keep jewellery and other valuables,” said candidate Yashashwini N.
The candidates who came from other district headquarters had to face problems in reaching the centres as the test centre address was not mentioned in detail on the admission ticket.
Many students had to leave home as early as 5.30 am to reach faraway centres on time.
“My centre was at Bannerghatta Road while I was staying at Ramanagara. I had no other option but to leave home at 5 am,” said another candidate.
NEET 2017 was conducted in 10 different languages, compared to eight last year. Students attempted the test in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Oriya and Kannada. The last two languages were added this year.
The paper comprised a total of 180 questions for 720 marks. This included 45 questions from physics and chemistry and 90 questions from biology. Each question was an objective type with four choices. The number of candidates registered for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 has increased by 41.42 per cent in comparison to previous year.
During 2016, the total number of candidates registered was 8,25,940 and this time it has increased to 11,35,104. CBSE had added 23 new exam centres across the country this year.
Students find physics paper tough
A candidate Meghana said, “The CET has more direct questions but NEET had questions that were twisted and hard to solve. Even our teachers found it difficult to help us prepare for the NEET. Although our portions are based on NCERT syllabus, it was tough to solve some questions.” Students also said that the negative marking in the test was another reason to worry. However, Balaji Rao, a candidate said, “I have done well. Except one question pertaining to the anatomy and physiology of frog, I was able to answer all other questions.”
Kalaburagi has only 20 male candidates
Kalaburagi : CBSE took special care while allotting centres to female and physically handicapped candidates. Of the 5,640 candidates, 5,620 were female and 20 were boys. CBSE gave the boys the centres they had chosen as their second and third options. Girls were given preference as many would otherwise have to travel long distances to reach their centres. In fact, of the 20 male candidates, a majority were physically handicapped.