Board exams over, but NEET is round the corner

S Prashanth had just finished his board exam but he had no time to celebrate. As the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) exams are scheduled on April 2, he has to immediately begin his preparations. “Most of my friends are writing this exam. As soon as we finished our board, we could hardly relax for half a day and we had to immediately rush to the coaching centre,” says Prashanth, who has been going to the coaching classes for a whole year.

Since there is little time between the board exams and these entrance exams students were forced to simultaneously study for both. “I have been attending engineering coaching as soon as I finished class 10. I had to divide my time accordingly,” says Sudharshan, who is writing the State board exams. He further adds, “It is a different ball game for people studying in State board when they have to appear for AIEEE. We have to work extra because what we learn is school is different from what we will be tested in the AIEEE. I definitely feel that those studying in the CBSE curriculum will have an edge over us.” 

Students writing NEET are worried about how they will perform. Coaching institutions organising crash courses before the exams have mushroomed all over the city. Govind Rajan of RGR academy located in Anna Nagar says, “Since the NEET is scheduled in May and the medical aspirant in Tamil Nadu will be writing it for the first time, we have organised a 33-day crash course for students. Here they will solve a series of questions that will be expected in the exam.” About the JEE exams he says, “Since the exams have been scheduled too close to one another, we do not have crash courses for JEE.”

Many in the state are not happy with the introduction of NEET. Sumit J, a professor, who organises coaching classes said, “Students are worried about their future as they are in the dark about the nature of questions. We have been organising special classes for the State board students. We hope it will help them perform well.”