Over 11 lakh medical aspirants took the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 today on May 7, at over 2,200 test centres in 104 cities across the country. Unlike previous year, where NEET took place in two phases, this year the examination was conducted on a single day. PaGaLGuY spoke to some of the candidates who took the examination today to get an idea of how the examination went for them.
Vinay Kumar from Agra pointed out that he found Physics to be the toughest among the three papers. “There were almost ten questions at least in Biology which were out of syllabus. But overall the Biology and Chemistry questions were easier and less tricky than Physics,” said Vinay. He is taking the exam for the third time and is confident of getting over 400 marks and securing admission in any government medical college.
Another aspirant from Begusarai, Patna Raunak Kumar, also found Physics tough and attempted only 20 questions in the paper. “I was not that well prepared in Physics and thus couldn’t perform that well in the paper. But Biology and Chemistry went well and questions came from the questions I had prepared and revised,” said Raunak. Banking on his performance in the Biology and Chemistry paper, Raunak is expecting close to 500 marks. Raunak took NEET coaching for a year in Allen Institute, Kota and is appearing for the first time in the examination.
After the instructions came in from the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) regarding the items that were allowed inside the examination hall, there was a significant amount of confusion and doubt among aspirants. Those candidates with problems in photographs on the admit card were also worried about their entry in the examination hall. “This year, entry in the examination centre appeared smotth and no aspirant was barred due to admit card photograph faults. They were allowed to get inside the examination centre on the basis of their Aadhar card as well,” said Vivek Pandey, an aspirant taking the NEET for the third time.
“Some of the aspirants, who wore belts had to take off their belts before entering the examination centre,” said another aspirant from Delhi, Rakshit Bindal.
“Chemistry paper had more inorganic and organic chemistry questions than physical chemistry. But there were very few questions from the previous years’ questions in the Physics paper,” further pointed out Vivek. He is expecting to get around 490 marks this year and is confident enough of getting admission in the MBBS course in any of the government medical college in Madhya Pradesh.
Kapil Suthar from Udaipur also found Physics to be tough while Biology and Chemistry questions were easily solvable. “Solving Chemistry paper took a lot of time for me and I could solve a total of 140 questions overall. I am expecting anywhere around 450 marks,” said Kapil. He is awaiting his board results and appeared for NEET for the first time.
Candidates taking NEET 2017 will not only be able to take admission in MBBS and BDS courses but the scores will be valid for other health science courses as well. “I am expecting to get a little over 350 marks in NEET 2017 and I don’t think it will be enough for getting admission in any MBBS college for me. Besides, I am interested in Bachelor of Agriculture course and might end up taking it in due course,” pointed out Rakshit.
The NEET 2017 consisted of three papers namely Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Both Physics and Chemistry carried 180 marks each, while Biology carried 360 marks in the examination. The NEET aspirants had to solve 180 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) in 180 minutes.