CHENNAI: Amid opposition from political parties and a section of the public, the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) was conducted on Sunday. At least 1,10,971 students were scheduled to appear for the test from across the State. Most of the students TNIE interacted with found the Physics section the most difficult and time-consuming among all the three sections — Biology, Chemistry, Physics.
“The paper was tough compared to last year. In Physics, numerical questions were lengthy and I had to move to other sections to score marks. Ideally, one question must be solved in one minute. But Physics questions took way more time than that,” said one of the candidates, S Anuradha, at Velachery.
This year’s NEET paper had new elements like match the column and assertion-reasoning questions. Subject experts said Biology questions were the easiest, and Chemistry ones were moderate. “Biology section had questions mostly from the textbook but Chemistry and Physics sections had numerical and conceptual questions. Nearly 40 per cent of the questions in the Physics section were moderately difficult.
Last year, it was about 30 per cent. This may have an impact on the cut-off level,” said K Bhargav, a tutor at a NEET coaching centre at T Nagar. According to the parents, the online classes played spoilsport for the students. “Problem-solving questions are best explained offline. Subjects like Maths and Physics are very difficult to teach online. Students also lacked practice due to uncertainty around NEET in the State,” said one of the parents at Taramani.
1,10,971 Total number of students scheduled to appear from TN
17,992 Students scheduled to appear from Chennai
Exam time: 2 to 5 pm
Covid SOP followed
Covid code of conduct, including wearing masks, using sanitisers, and ensuring social distancing, were followed in most of the NEET centres in the city. Though there was little crowding at the beginning, police officials and staff at the exam centres ensured social distancing. Many exam centres arranged separate lunch rooms on the premises and had microphones to make important announcements
‘All parties in one tone to do away with neet’
Tiruchy: Minister for School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Sunday said that all the parties in the State assembly, including the BJP, had shown consensus to do away with NEET. We will continue to protest against it and with the help of all parties, hopefully do away with NEET, he added. He was speaking on the sidelines of inaugurating a ration shop near Katur in Cauvery Nagar at `16.25 lakh sourced from MLA fund. Tiruchy Collector S Sivarasu was also present.