NEET UG – First Day, First Show!

Madiha Jawed & Aneeket Barua

The fate of medical aspirants will now depend on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET UG) that made its debut today on May 5, 2013. About 7.26 lakh students appeared for the exam across various cities of India. So, how tough was the exam? Find out as students share their reactions.

NEET UG – how was the exam?

While some students came out with smiling faces, there were others who thought they could have done better. Many students found Biology part to be the easiest. Hansini, a student of Amity school, Mayur Vihar, Delhi said, “The paper was good for me and I am hopeful of getting through the exam. I was able to solve 115-120 questions in total.” She also informed that students were not allowed to take pencil boxes that were not transparent and had to inform the invigilator once they took their seats.

Sharing her views on the new exam, Hansini said, “I found the earlier pattern to be better as we had a lot of options. We could attempt other exams as well. But with NEET, this will not be the case. However, the good thing about NEET is that we will not have to fill up so many forms that we did earlier.”

For Shaija, a student of DDPS, Ghaziabad, the Biology paper was good but Physics was quite tough and tricky. She said, “I could solve over 50 questions and was surprised to see direct questions from Bio. It really was not expected.” Quite happy with the concept of NEET, she said, “I really appreciate this step taken by the government. It covers all the exams and we don’t have to waste our money on filling a list of forms for other medical exams."

Akash Verma who earlier said he was quite confident of cracking the exam was not really happy with his performance. He said, “I am not satisfied with the paper, I could have done better. Moreover, the exam started 9 minutes late. The Physics paper was tricky and complicated, Chemistry was okay and Biology was easy.”

On asking how difficult was it to prepare for board exams and NEET-UG together, Akash said, “It was difficult but this is minimum we can do, after all, we are medical aspirants." However, for Hansini, preparing for both the exams was difficult. She said, “It was really tough for me to manage both the exams. It will be easier for drop outs but not for a regular student. The focus is not in one place and keeps shifting.”

Payal Agarwal, a student of Modern School Noida had a neutral take on NEET. She said, “For me, both the concepts are equal. I don’t mind the change in the pattern, it’s almost the same.”

Divya, a student of MRL Senior Secondary School Delhi said, “I find this concept of NEET much better. At least it will increase seats in medical colleges. Moreover, the problem of so many important medical exams coninciding the same day will be solved."

Parent of a NEET aspirant said, “If only NEET is implemented the way the government wants to, it will definitely benefit the students. Most importantly, they would not have to fill in so many forms that they used to till last year."

While another parent shared, “Being conducted at a national level, there should be only one exam. There is no need for other state governments and private universities conducting their own exams. Why should they in the first place? It confuses the students and leaves them baffled."

As informed by one of the parents outside the exam centre, a message circulated by the CBSE a day before the exam did not reach many aspirants on time. The message said that students had to get a 4/6 photograph to the examination centre. The school (exam centre) took the initiative of calling a professional photographer at the last moment to help students get their photographs clicked at the centre itself. 

Also check out the NEET-UG 2013 paper analysis & expected cut-offs on Shiksha.com