Changes made in NCERT textbooks, and grace marks for students for losing time at examination centres are a few reasons behind students getting higher scores, officials at the National Testing Agency (NTA) said on Thursday.
The development comes two days after the result of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2024 was announced by the NTA which saw students scoring high marks including 67 students sharing an all India rank one.
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Ever since the NTA announced the NEET-UG results, which is conducted for undergraduate admissions to medical colleges, parents and students have raised objections to it.
Their key concerns include students getting higher marks than last year, 67 students sharing rank one, and of these 67 students, six are from the same examination center in Haryana.
“We need an explanation of the normalization criteria of NEET Results. And at how many centers was the normalization applied? Multiple theories have risen due to the current situation. All the students demand to know the truth NTA,” asked Alakh Pandey, founder PhysicsWallah on X.
“There has been 100+ grace marks which have never happened in the history of any exam in India. Rank has now hyperinflated. 67 students got 720/720, many are from the same center. All these raising many doubts?” posted Abhishek Gupta, a student on X.
Responding to the outrage, officials at NTA on Thursday told HT that there are four reasons behind the issue.
“The NTA had received few representations from students and some high courts, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Chhattisgarh, raising concerns over loss of time during exam. Afterwards, a committee was formed to look into the matter. The committee went through everything and came up with the formula which has been devised and adopted by the apex court in a judgment from 2018, to address the loss of time faced by candidates. The loss of time was ascertained, and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. Therefore, the marks of students at some centers,” said a senior NTA official, on the condition of anonymity.
Answering queries on a section of students getting all India rank one, the official said that the question paper was prepared using a new NCERT textbook, however, some students had old NCERT textbooks.
While one option was correct according to the new NCERT book, another option was right according to the other.
“The NTA got representation from the students on the same, due to which NTA had to assign five marks to all students who had marked one of the two options. Due to this, marks of a total of 44 students increased from 715 to 720, which resulted in an increased number of toppers,” the official said.
“This center in Haryana’s Bahadurgarh also had a time loss case. Therefore, it is likely that those students who did well got further benefited by the revised marks they got as compensation for the time loss”, the official said while addressing questions on toppers from the same examination centre.
However, he further emphasised that the question paper this time was comparatively easier due to which marks of students increased.
The NTA further reiterated that those who have got the same marks will be assigned seats using the “tie-breaking” formula.
“Those getting higher marks/percentile score in Biology will be given preference followed by Chemistry and Physics. Subsequently, candidates with less proportion of the number of attempted incorrect answers and correct answers in all the subjects in the Test, or Biology, followed by Chemistry and Physics, will be given preference,” the agency said.