3.5 lakh medical aspirants appear for AIIMS entrance exam

Over 3.5 lakh students in the country are reported to have appeared for the medical entrance test conducted by AIIMS. The premier institute offers 672 MBBS seats seeking admission in AIIMS Delhi and six AIIMS-like institutions in the country. It is for the first time that AIIMS conducted its entrance test at different centres in J&K. 600 students are reported to have appeared at three centres in Srinagar.

Further breakup highlights that 72 (medical seats are for Indian nationals) to seek admission in AIIMS, New Delhi for the MBBS course. 16 seats are under reservation for SC/ST category, 19 for OBC. Under the general category, there are 37 medical seats. Other AIIMS-like institutes offer 100 medical seats each.

171 centres across the country conducted the AIIMS test, along with the online Computer based tests in two shifts. Six cities hosted students for admissions in AIIMS including, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela.

Since students from Chandigarh and Panchkula do not have a centre in their own cities, they still have to opt for the nearby centres of Mohali, Banur, Ropar, Baddi, Patiala, and Ambala. However, there were problems reported at the centre, as both the shifts of the exam, witnessed students suffering from discomfort due to no water, long distance travelling and even, poor ventilation in the examination room.

"I gave the exam in the morning shift and my centre was in Landran. First of all reaching there in itself was a tedious task. The labs were not properly ventilated. We were not allowed to take our water bottles inside and neither did anyone serve water. Ideally, packaged water should have been provided keeping the heat in mind," said Geetika Sharma, one of the candidates from Sector 12 in Panchkula to

TOI.

Students also complained of paper and pen being of inferior quality. They were not even allowed to take their water bottles inside. In addition, the exam is reported to be tougher than Neet. The chemistry section was considered to be the most difficult and tricky. Even the physics part had lengthy calculation, making it a difficult attempt for students.

"The AIIMS UG is considered difficult compared to NEET due to section of 60 reason assertion type questions and the unpredictable nature of 20 GK questions. The uncertainty has further increased due to two different sets of question papers in the two shifts. In the exam, students found the biology section easy and many questions were based on NCERT textbooks. There were many diagram based and matching type questions in biology," said Arvind Goyal, a biology expert to TOI.

In Kashmir, it was for the first time that 600 students took the AIIMS MBBS in three centres in Srinagar. “We are happy about the response and in future we will try to have more centers to accommodate more aspirants,” Dr Ashraf Ganaie, Faculty Incharge of the AIIMS Examining body said to a local daily.

Now, experts and students only wish that the authorities at AIIMS provide them an option to upload question paper and answer keys. This is a practice followed in other medical colleges. Students also seek to make the system more transparent by inviting suggestions and objections from them. For now, many medical aspirants can wait with anticipation for their result expected to be announced on June 14.