NEET-2 update- Over 4.5 lakh medical aspirants appear, exam considered more Difficult

Over 4.5 lakh medical aspirants in India appeared for NEET-2 on July 24, 2016. From J&K, 1621 aspirants took NEET-2, with 19 registered candidates giving it a miss. Srinagar had reportedly two centres, with 555 students appearing at SP College, and the remaining 571 appearing at the Amar Singh College, as confirmed by officials to the media. The centre in Budgam saw 495 candidates appearing for the exam.

"Total candidates registered for the examination were 4,75,785. As per preliminary reports received from across the country, more than 90 per cent candidates were present in the examination," a CBSE statement said.

The answer keys for NEET-2 conducted on July 24, 2016 have been published by many coaching institutes.

Official from CBSE:

• Answer key for NEET-1 and NEET-2 to be published between August 7 to 9


• OMR sheet can be downloaded for NEET-1 and NEET-2 from August 4 to 6


• Procedure for downloading both is to enter the registration number and the password on the CBSE official website

Reportedly, students found NEET-2 more difficult than NEET-1 which was conducted earlier on May 1. There were many students who reappeared for the exam, seeking medical admissions in UG courses. Many students implied that physics paper was tricky. In comparison, bio- including two sections Botany & Zoology, and chemistry paper was not tough. The security at all examination centres was tight, with many students left stranded as they were not allowed inside the examination hall post the scheduled time of 9.30 am.

However, close to 7,000 candidates who appeared for NEET-2 in Punjab opine different on the difficulty of the question paper. Some students implied that NEET-2 was easier. Some think that physics and chemistry section was tougher.

Nisha, 18, from Ambala said to HT that most questions were from the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) syllabus. "Biology was easy but the physics section was tougher, though I am satisfied with the overall paper."

Harish Gupta, 17, from Himachal Pradesh appeared for the exam at KBDAV, Sector 7, told HT, "Chemistry questions were tough, but I expect better result."

However, most students looked skeptical, saying NEET-2 result might shock many. "As the chemistry section was tough, now I feel I would have fared well in NEET-1," said Divya Sharma, 20.

Arvind Goyal, medical exam trainer, said biology questions were along the expected line, though most questions came from the NCERT books. "There were no straight one-liners. Few questions were beyond the NCERT, which is a norm rather than an exception. Some tricky questions were repeated from previous AIPMT papers."

"The chemistry section was well-framed, and included coordination and organic chemistry. However, chemistry, this time, was of little more advanced level than NEET-1," said Ananya Ganguly, chemistry expert.

She added in the booklet code AA, the question number 67 of chemistry has two correct options: 1 and 4. "Students should get grace marks for that."

In Hyderabad, 87.2% attendance was reported for NEET-2. 20,000 students appeared in Telangana. As many as 23,700 candidates had applied for the test, held at 29 centres across the state.

Some even regretted their decision to forego Neet 1 marks. "The physics and chemistry parts were extremely difficult as compared to Neet 1. I believe I performed better in Neet 1," said Ch Venkat, an aspirant to TOI.

The Physics and Chemistry paper each had 45 questions. Bio section had 90 questions. Each correct answer will fetch 4 marks. Negative marking of minus 1 also applies.

The academic session is confirmed to start from September. The results for both the phases of NEET are expected to be announced on August 17 followed by counseling.