NEET gets mixed reaction from Chennai students

“The State board students could easily comprehend only thirty per cent of the question paper. Though the topics are the same, the approach is different and the questions were application-based, something that the state board students are not comfortable with,” said T Venkatesh, a chemistry teacher in a Government school in Kanchipuram, adding, “Some of us arranged for special classes for the students and made them solve previous year’s question paper also.” 

The paper was set for 180 questions of four marks each – all multiple choice questions . A negative marking of one point is given for a wrong answer. 

Another criticism against NEET is that only students who can afford coaching centres can perform well in the examination.

Prashanth Raju, a student of SKB Boys Higher Secondary School, said, “I joined a coaching centre in February and have been working on model papers since then provided by the coaching centre. This made me perform well in the exam and helped me get through the physics paper that had many application-based questions.”

Students from the districts, who do not have access to the high-end coaching centres said that they aren’t very confident. P Varsha of Thirumalar Higher Secondary School, Nagamalai Pudukkottai near Madurai, said that Biology and Chemistry papers were relatively tougher. The questions were within the syllabus but needed better understanding of the subjects. Still, the exam was not as tough as I expected.”