Why one expert thinks NEET-UG 2024 is a ‘rigged’ exam

Kolkata: The solution of canceling the pardons given to the 1,563 students who took this year’s obscure NEET-UG exams was a “bait” that students were supposed to take and does not solve the problem at all, says Maheshwer Peri.

Peri is the founder of Careers 360 and has spoken out in favor of HAS THE Thread, Peri says this year’s NEET-UG is a ‘rigged’ exam. This time, nearly 24 lakh students took the exam to secure a seat in government colleges that teach them to become doctors.

A day ago, on June 13, the Union government told the Supreme Court that students granted pardons would be informed of their results without these marks and would be given an opportunity to appear for a retest. Those who do not wish to take retests will have their original scores – without grace points – taken into account.

The issue of pardons was raised only after the results were declared on June 4, the same day the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha and multi-assembly elections took place. Experts and students highlighted how the original results date of June 14 had been brought forward to a day when the focus would seemingly be elsewhere.

Shortly after the scorecards went live, students pointed out the statistical impossibility for some of them to get numbers like 719 and 718. It’s impossible, they said. The score for each question is 4. A wrong answer gives you a negative rating of 1. So, those who can answer all 180 questions correctly get 720. Those who answer 179 questions correctly get 716. There cannot be any number between these two.

Faced with this question, the NTA declared – for the first time after the announcement of the results – that it was granting pardons on the basis of “some representations and trials of candidates” who had lost time during the test. He claimed that to grant the grace marks, he had used a normalization formula approved by the apex court in 2018. But he did not clarify that this formula was designed for the CLAT exam which is conducted online, making it easier to track wasted time.

The NTA claimed that this was how scores could be 718 or 719.

Although the awarding of grace points was one of the problems in this year’s exams, it is not the only one – nor, as Peri says, the most important.

“The PIL for all 1,563 students has reduced the entire problem to one problem. The integrity of the exam is lost – the Supreme Court itself has declared that the “sanctity of the exams” is in question. It’s a small thing and the problem has been reduced to that,” says Peri.

He adds that the “solution” proposed by the NTA was always on the table. She was considering a new test at the June 8 press conference. Dr Jyothi R, from the Indian Medical Association Young Doctors Network, that very day I asked Thread as to what would happen if there was no uniformity in the questions asked for the same exam.

A more serious problem is one that Peri and other experts have repeatedly referred to: impenetrable score inflation. There are 67 toppers who got full marks – 72. With the cancellation of grace marks, the number came down to 61. Peri pointed out that this will be the first time a topper will not get their choice of The institution – AIIMS Delhi, the first choice, admits only 56. With 61 toppers, some will clearly not be accepted. Here too, the NTA’s solution is strange. If their scores in the different categories are similar, then the NTA has adopted a system in which those who registered first for the exam will have primacy.

Peri worries what students who have respectable scores – but lower rankings – will do. The table below, taken from one of his videos, illustrates the extraordinary increase in the number of students occupying a results bracket which in previous years was only accessible to a few. Student forums on Reddit and social media are full of test-takers who recorded their scores in the upper 600s but whose rankings are significantly lower.

Students, applicants, parents and journalists have repeatedly highlighted how they have been inculcated that a score of 650 is a respectable score – capable of securing a seat in government colleges. But this time, these unwritten rules have been abandoned.

These students are being left behind, Peri says. And what they will do on council day – July 6 – is a question Peri says he doesn’t have an answer to.

The Wire has contacted the NTA for a comment on the matter. This article will be updated if we receive a response.

“The only way to get to the bottom of this is through a technical and forensic audit. For the first time you have a winner who has failed his class 12 exam. You have several toppers from the same center. The NTA should identify the lapses. Look at whether students based in, say, Hyderabad or New Delhi, prefer centers in Godhra or elsewhere – this shows that an agent has asked you to book a slot in a suitable location,” he says.

Statistical modeling, Peri adds, can help identify the sources of the huge gap between some students’ performance in Class 10 and 12 and their NEET scores.

Many have urged the NTA to address the paper leak – it is one of several issues still being considered by the Supreme Court, although with a full retest ruled out, solutions are few and far between. Returning Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan claims there is no paper leak. However, there have been complaints about the publication of the newspaper on social media and use of unfair meansAnd reports of Rs 60 crore being exchanged for this.

There are also allegations that even though one coaching center has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, others have remained conspicuously silent. These centers exert significant influence and consistently advertise “success” rates.

When asked whether the opacity of these reviews is to blame, Peri says it’s a broader question. “The system is still unfair to those who don’t have coaching. The little girl who can’t go to a coaching center because her parents don’t allow her,” he says.