New Delhi: Such is the mark inflation in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) UG 2024 results that even those with 700-plus marks are now staring at ranks much lower than what they would have got in previous years.
Consider this: NEET candidates who scored 715 marks this year received a rank of 225. In 2022, the topper had the same score. The situation comes as no surprise given that 67 candidates have tallied a perfect score of 720 this year.
Whether it is extreme competition or alleged irregularities, mark inflation is turning out to be a headache for medical aspirants and administrators alike. Some of the NEET stakeholders ThePrint spoke to point out that rank inflation is more than 4-5 times higher compared to last year.
Even all the 67 students who scored a perfect 720 this year are unlikely to get admitted to the premier AIIMS.
“640-650 is a great score in NEET. Last year, students with these marks would have achieved a rank around 10,000, but now they are getting ranks between 30,000-40,000,” PhysicsWallah founder Alakh Pandey said.
The owner of the online ed-tech platform has filed a PIL appealing the apex court to order a probe into this year’s mess by an independent committee.
This year, NEET candidates with 650 marks received ranks from 21,724 and below, whereas last year their rank would have been around 6,803. The same score fetched 4,246, and 3,921 rank in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
“This kind of rank inflation has never happened. We tell the children to get 600-650 marks, assuring them they will get a good college. But now, there is nothing for such marks. We see rank inflation even among the toppers, with 67 students achieving rank one. The entire issue is about how much inflation has happened,” Careers360 founder Maheshwari Peri tells ThePrint.
According to data (see below) shared by Careers360, NEET candidates who scored 715 marks this year received a rank of 225. Last year, the rank was 4 with this score, and the top rank in 2022. However, in 2021, medical aspirants with 715 marks were ranked 5th rank across India.
Twenty-year-old Kajal Rawat, who scored 695 marks this year, was initially thrilled with her score. “I was so happy with my marks. I was expecting a score like this, but when I saw my rank, I was shocked to my core. All my celebration turned into anguish,” says Rawat, who now won’t be getting her choice of medical college, AIIMS.
“I studied so hard and slept only five hours to reach this score. I achieved my dream score but I won’t be getting my dream college because the rank inflation is the highest of all time this year,” she tells ThePrint.
This year’s rank inflation is unprecedented, with experts citing multiple reasons behind this surge. “The paper was the same as every year. The difficulty level was the same. All experts say that the difficulty level of the paper was the same. And possibly, there would be a little bit of difference. But the results show a difference of 3 to 56 times. The students scored higher marks,” Peri said.
In 2020, only two candidates achieved the full marks of 720. The number of such candidates went up to 3 the next year. No student achieved full marks in 2022, with the top ranked score settling at 715 marks. Last year, two students achieved full marks. This year, 67 students got full marks, and 6 of them achieved this feat with grace marks.
“We have never seen such rank inflation in NEET before. In my view, issues such as the NEET 2024 paper leaks, centre fixing, impersonation, and other malpractices are major causes for this inflation. The government must form an investigating body that does not include the National Testing Agency. Only then can we find out the real causes,” Dr. Vivek Pandey, an RTI activist actively helping distressed students, tells ThePrint.
Over the last year, 52,000 students scored higher marks, and the problem extends beyond the 1,563 students, Peri said. “The problem starts there. If you talk about the toppers, you can see 67 times here. Right? So, it is not just about the toppers. It is not about the 1,600 students. NTA is misleading,” he said.
In its FAQs released Wednesday, the NTA had come out with its own explanation for the surge in scores. “Reduced syllabus, moderate difficulty level, increase in number of aspirants and the fact that NEET (UG) allows multiple attempts could be some of the reasons for high scores,” the NTA had said.
ThePrint reached out to a senior NTA official through calls and texts. This article will be updated if and when a response is received.
In an uncertain situation like now, students like Kajal Rawat are disheartened, anxious, and sad. They feel dejected. The matter is currently in the Supreme Court, with NEET aspirants and RTI activists demanding a re-conduction of the exam.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard petitions related to this matter. The Centre informed the top court that they are ready to scrap the grace marks from the scorecards of 1,563 students and re-conduct the exam for them. These were students who had faced time loss during the entrance test that took place 5 May. The re-exam will be held 23 June.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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