NEET Result 2024: NTA Issues Clarification after NEET Result Controversy Over Toppers, High cut-off
NEET Result 2024: NTA Issues Clarification after NEET Result Controversy Over Toppers, High cut-off
Amid a controversy over inflation of marks that led to as many as 67 candidates bagging the first rank in the NEET-UG entrance exam, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday said that it was due to a revision in the answer key and on account of compensatory marks awarded for loss of time.
In a statement on Thursday, the NTA said that changes made in NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
“Out of the 67 candidates who got 720/720 marks, 44 are on account of the revision in one answer key of Physics and six are on account of compensatory marks for loss of time,” the NTA said amid an outcry about the fact that 67 students shared the same rank in the exam.
The NTA also denied the allegations that as many as six toppers were from the same centre in Haryana.
“It is pertinent to mention that the toppers are from across the country,” the NTA said.
The clarification came amid allegations of irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) — conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 abroad — and inflation of marks.
Earlier, in a post on X, an aspirant said, “67 students scoring 720 out of 720 marks in the results released after the NEET exam paper leak raises suspicion. This is playing with the future of lakhs of candidates of the country, due to which there is anger among the students. The government should conduct a high-level investigation”.
NTA Clarifies on increase in Cut-off marks
In its detailed response to the questions, the NTA further added that the increase in the cut-off and number of toppers in the NEET-UG reflected the competitive nature of the exam and maintained that the test’s integrity had not been compromised.
“The increase in cutoff reflects the competitive nature of the examination and the higher performance standards achieved by the candidates this year,” a senior NTA official said in the statement.
“The number of candidates who appeared in 2023 was 20,38,596 while the number of candidates who appeared in 2024 increased to 23,33,297. The increase in candidates naturally led to an increase in high scorers due to a larger pool of candidates,” it said.
On the grace marks awarded to some students, the NTA said the NEET-UG filed a few petitions before multiple high courts raising concerns of loss of exam time during the conduct of the test at some exam centres.
“The concerns raised by the candidates through the writ petitions and representations about loss of examination time was ascertained and 1,563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time, and the revised marks of such candidates vary from -20 to 720 marks. Amongst these, the score of two candidates also happens to be 718 and 719 respectively due to compensatory marks,” the official added.
The NTA had on May 5 claimed that the distribution of wrong question papers at an exam centre in Rajasthan led to some candidates walking out with the papers. The agency had denied any leak of the question paper.
A day later, the NTA reiterated that the reports claiming question paper leak in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG are “completely baseless and without any ground”, and every question paper has been accounted for.
NEET aspirant allegedly dies by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota; 10th case this year
An 18-year-old student preparing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) for admission in undergraduate medical courses, died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota district on Wednesday, police said.
Police said the deceased student was a resident of Rewa, Madhya Pradesh.
She was living in the Jawahar Nagar area of Kota with her mother and brother where she had been preparing for the NEET exam since the last one year.
Her brother, who is in class 11, is also preparing for JEE. The student’s NEET results had been announced a day before.
According to police, the student’s mother was sleeping in the room on Wednesday afternoon. At around 4pm, she jumped from the window of her flat in the multi-story building. People nearby rushed her to a hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.
(With inputs from agencies)