14,231 take NEET; easy questions surprise students

While some claimed that the test was simple, there were many others struggled to understand the concept of colour coding for each question. 

“As we were warned by our previous batchmates about how difficult the exam had been for them, we worked hard to prepare for it. We were shocked when the paper turned out to be so easy,” said A Sriram, a resident of Thanjavur, who took the test at a centre in Kovilambakkam. 

“While the question paper was easy, the fact that they did not provide us pen and paper to solve the mathematical problems was upsetting as we lost a lot of time trying to solve the problems mentally,” he added.

Students also struggled to understand the concept of colour coding for each question. “The colour white was used for questions which we had not yet seen, orange for those that we had seen and not yet answered, purple for those which we had answered and not yet saved, and green for the answers that we had saved. Understanding this system took us sometime as we were new to it,” said Ramya S, a resident of Chennai. She who had to settle for a centre in Mumbai owing to the lack of seats in Tamil Nadu at the start of the applications.

Another student complained of his system shutting down while he was in the middle of answering the questions. “I got worked up when my system suddenly crashed. I had answered most of the questions and did not want to start from scratch. But the staff immediately provided me with another system and my answers were not lost,” he said. 

While the National Examination Board (NBE) had instructed the students much ahead of time against carrying gadgets and stationary, time was lost at some of the centres as students failed to comply. “We took time to enter our centre as students had carried earphones, phones and jewellery,” said Sujata K, who took her exam at the centre in Ambattur. 

4.5 per cent students who registered for the test from across the country were absent. “The results are expected to be released on January 31,” Dr Rashmikant Dave, vice president of NBE said.