NEET NET Result: Nearly 3.3 mn students affected as govt agency fails the test
UGC-NET exams this year. Until now, allegations of fraud and paper leaks were linked to only some state exams.
An estimated 2.4 million science stream students just out of school have been trapped by allegations of exam paper leak to row over awarding grace marks related to NEET. If this was not misery enough for the student community and parents, the overnight cancellation of UGCNET for doctorate aspirants has added to their woes.
Though both exams are very different in terms of career options, they are conducted by the National Testing Agency and are currently pen-paper tests. The health ministry resisted an online format for NEET, while UGC-NET successfully run as a computer-based test (CBT) since 2018 was suddenly moved to a paper-based optical mark reader (OMR) test this year, baffling many as tests do not move back from online to pen-paper mode normally.
“The decision to move UGC NET from online to offline exam is really baffling, especially since the risks of pen-paper exam are well known. It involves manual handling of the question paper/answer sheets at several points, introducing the exam to grave risks. All standardised exams across the world are tightly controlled online exams that ensure there are no interfaces between the server and students. This significantly minimises the possibility of manipulation or leak. Though cyber fraud and hacking are theoretical threats, professional testing firms have measures to counter them. NTA itself deployed such tools effectively for UGC-NET when it was done on
